Coin Operated Boy
by ToBeAJabberwocky
Summary: Severus Snape picks up a street child in hopes for the reward that comes with turning in unregistered magic. But, it is the truth that she carries that will bring upon his breaking point. The teacher who forces himself to forget must now come face to face with the sins of his treachery, sin, and greatest mistake. *Addiction* Multi Pov. MajorChar/Families.**
1. Chapter 1

**A/n -** Welcome! Let me know what you think of the story. :)

Yes, there is an **ADDICTION** **WARNING**. This means there is addiction in the story.. It's Heroinesk. By that I mean, needles, wraps, kits, highs, so on are flat out explained. Not in the first chapter, but in the story. So.. there is your warning. :)

The story is MultiPov. I'm not sure of the title or really what to say besides, I hope you enjoy and I hope you let me know what you think!

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 **Coin Operated Boy.**

 _Severus Snape picks up a street child in hopes for the reward that comes with turning in unregistered magic. But, it is the truth that she carries that will bring upon his breaking point. The teacher who forces himself to forget must now come face to face with the sins of his trechery, sin, and greatest mistake. ***Addiction Topic. Multi Pov. MalfoyFam,Trio. MajorChar_

 **Chapter One**

Nineteen year old, Severus Snape, twenty-three year old, Lucius Malfoy and twenty year old, Walden Mcnaire, stand silently among the shadows of a few gathered tree's clustered off a way's from a quiet muggle road. It's late. The windows of the houses are dark and cold as the night sky, while the the world sits in shadow as the moon is blackened out behind heavy rain clouds. Lucius stands tall as he always does, his long blond hair is tied back by a elastic instead of a ribbon, his clothing blackened and embroiled with the brandishing of his evil. With grey, storming eyes, Lucius looks over to each of his companions as they stand in silent mental preparation for their upcoming mission.

Walden Mcnaire, a young man with a goatee and dull blue eyes holds his head tilted upwards, eyes closed and allowing the light rain that slides over the tree leafs to land on his twisted face and slide down into his collar. Lucius notes the man is rolling his wand between his black gloved fingers, a show of excitement towards the events to come.

Moving on, the blonde's eyes then drift to, Snape.

The thin, pale man stood cast in shadow with his head slouched forward, his hair falling in front of his face creating a curtain of dripping, black hair that masked his expression. Severus had been a companion of Lucius's since about two years before he joined Hogwarts and through the younger mans years had done his best to keep the Marauders at bay until young boy was molded into the venomous creature he currently was. Lucius's lip twitched upwards in pride as he takes a moment to evaluate in the end result of all his years of work.

Over the span of Hogwarts, Severus had shown his worth in many ways but, his ticket into his life of spoils was when he introduced Narcissa to him. The pre-existing friendship of Snape and Black was not so surprising to Lucius, as both parties were middle class poor and held a long lasting and strong friendship through Severus's mother. Early on, Lucius promised himself that one day he would join the Snape/Malfoy family through marriage of their kin, allowing them into forever wealth. Though, it must be pointed out that Severus's private life seemed to interrupt the thought of him ever producing kin.

Dipping his hand into the pocket of his black dueling robes, Lucius pulls out a single rolled parchment. A private and highly important task from the Dark Lord, they knew nothing beside what was written on the parchment that none had yet to read, only knowing that their task was to be done flawlessly.

"Shall we go over the specifics, then?" Lucius drawled in a bored manner, only opening the scroll and reading when Severus gave a nod for the two of them.

"Right. First off… This is a non-kill mission. I repeat boys," Lucius founding his point by making direct eye contact, "the target can not die, or we all will face our mortality at his next calling. Our target is one Jessica Morrow." His eyes returned to the parchment, "the family is made up of four members. A father, a mother, a twenty-four year old brother, and our target. The target is female, black hair, grey eyes. Stands about..."

Lucius voice stalled and Severus and Mcnaire looked up, quietly addressing Lucius's faulting. Quickly clearing his voice, Lucius crumpled the paper before lighting it aflame in the palm of his gloved hand.

"She is three in a half feet tall, and six years old," he finished numbly, pulling out his wand.

The group felt the weight come down but no one spoke a word and instead matched their leaders action. Yes, they were Deatheaters. Uncaring, mercilessness, murderers of the night, but children were different, especially since they couldn't kill this one. Lucius heart slammed against his chest as he forced his feet grounded. It had been ever since Draco was born that putting a wand to children had become a nauseating task; tasks he ended with the purifying breath of death for both of their sake.

"We can't kill anyone, even if they fights us." Lucius repeats as he starts away from the covered brush, "If they are good, we clear their mind of Jessica all together. But we need the child alive and unscathed. Understood?" His voice became the strength the group needed and the two pulled their heads up and looked at Lucius as they followed behind.

"Mcnaire."

Right away the wand was held up, pointed towards the cold, wet sky and with a flick of his tightly cuffed wrist, the street lights flickered off and the three disappeared behind silver masks and heavy silence. From the spot and their protection they were gone, vanished into the darkness to form again on the white stone stoop of the correct home.

Looking at both of his men who stood beside him, Lucius tipped his head and pointed the wand towards the door lock.

"Alohomora," his voice whispered.

When the lock simply clicked and unlatched, Lucius found himself uneasy, his throat drying as his stomach churned. He didn't understand why the Dark Lord needed a seeming muggle and he found the ease in which he were to retrieve her was unsettling to say the least.

"Like gentlemen now, shall we?" Lucius said with a forced strength, ignoring his own anxiety with a breath as his fingers clasp closed the buttons around his throat.

With a final head nod to his crew, Severus stepped forward and took the doors handle before throwing it open for Mcnair, who ran inside hissing silencing charms and security spells. Lucius strode in next and traveled at his leisure, disappearing inside the darkened house while Severus stayed behind to immediately shut, lock, and barricaded the front door. He would then apperate to the back of the house, landing on the slab of concrete outside the screen door that would lead directly into the kitchen which he would quickly pull open and enter.

The events rolled out in perfect timing as expected, and Severus would push through the kitchen door just as Lucius and Mcnair turned the corner. They found the family together and joined at the dinner table as expected, still rising from their seats when the kitchen was stormed.

"Sit down." Lucius hissed sardonically, bringing the family to freeze in mid-rise.

Taking his place in the front of the table, Lucius pushed his position as leader of the group to the frozen family. Hanging his his arms with his wand twisting in his fingers at his side, Lucius scanned the small family before him and gives a a nauseating sigh behind his silver mask as he swallows the vomit that rises within the truth in front of him. Scanning over the yellow and white walls of the kitchen he glances towards dirty dishes that sits as still in the sink, as the pictures that hung on walls. Metal and chrome muggle appliances scattered the room, as electric lighting illuminates from over head.

This was a completely muggle family whom were in the middle of a normal weekday dinner and were staring in confused fear at the sticks being pointed at them and for a moment, Lucius didn't know what to say. The family did falter at Lucius's request, but the father and young man did not back down as the mother sat and motioned the two young girls into their seats in a quiet panic.

"Sit. down." Lucius's voice repeated for the men, reflecting his rising irritation.

Instead, the two men fully stood and Lucius rolled his eyes and gave an audible sigh.

"Robert! Michael! What are you doing?! Sit down!" The wife cried in a panic, pulling down on the sleeve of her husband.

"Yes, Robert and Michael, you should sit down." Lucius voice remained calm, but carried a hint of venom now.

"Now, you listen here!" The father began, rising yelling and threats from the men as Lucius's jaw grit and his fingers tightened on his wand, ready to warn and punish.

As quickly as the rising tension of the room, they were all quickly silenced by a sharp and very loud bang which erupted from the corner. It hadn't been enough that muggle lights gave him headaches, one was rising from his enterence already, but now his ears rang deafened and he would cast his attention to Snape who stood holding a muggle revolver towards the ceiling as small pieces of white plaster fell around him. Lucius chose to stay silent when the action seemed to do it's job and the family quickly returned into their seats in silence. Saying nothing, Severus stood quietly in front the screen door, following the barrel of the gun with that of the sitting family. Shaking them with the cocking of his next shot.

Lucius's head throbbed and his vision fuzzed as the growing pain that centered around his temples, now bled to behind his eyes. Severus did not hold the nickname "Half Blood Prince" lightly, and every now and then he would do something like this, that would remind Lucius why he called himself such. Nonetheless, this was an intimidation mission not a not a murder mission. The family was to continue their lives to tell the tale of a muggle child napping or even of nothing at all, and Lucius knew better than to attack until need be.

"Goood," Lucius purred, looking around the table as seats were taken.

The mother with her long brown hair and scared blue eyes, the father who's hair was an frosted black with eyes so angry, and the brother with muscles that shown from under his shirt, his fathers grey eyes glaring; were noted already. There were two younger girls who also sat at the table, which was when Lucius locked eyes with the matching eyed target.

"What do you want!" The mother cried. "Take anything you want, just don't hurt us, please."

Her high pitched voice rang in Lucius already pained skull and he kept strong eyes on the target as he tried to ignore the pain.

"Jessica." His voice was quiet but heard within the trauma of a mothers worst fear.

"Jessi- you want my little girl? No!" The mother was shrieking now hysterically, "Please! Anything but her!" she cried bringing the hype in the room to pick up once again.

"How the hell do you know my daughter?!" The father roared, leaping to his feet at once with his son and slamming his fist upon the tabletop.

With his only desire to cease the rising racket outside his brain, with a nod to McNaire, the wand was flicked and the man dropped to the floor in pure agony. The family's attention was quickly redirected into chaotic fear as the father dropped to the tile floor, writhing under the extreme pain and his ever tightening throat. Holding the point for unforgettable seconds, it wasn't until Lucius nodded again when McNaire would pull the curse and the family would stay silent under a new found respect towards the wands being pointed at them.

"Did I stutter?" Lucius rose his voice as he gave a swing of his arm while he spoke. "You want us to leave, fair enough, we will go. But I'm bringing the child with me."

The father's red eyes bore at the masked invader in quiet hate as he pulled himself up off the ground and onto the chair with help from his wife.

"Good. Now, I'm offering a final deal. You give me, Jessica, and I will ease your pain by taking her from all your memories." Lucius played the part of the double edged angel.

"I will never! Hand you my daughter!" The father went to roar again, his voice pushing out instead in a pathetic wisp.

With not much care towards the opinions of the family, Lucius turned to the child and opened his hand towards her. "Jessica, dear. Come here lass, your delay will only create more pain," he purred with the same tone he would call young Draco, his words now mimicked in sick disconnection.

The room flashed in a sudden brightness as another ear splitting bang went off and a searing pain ripped through Lucius side, throwing him off balance and forcing his hands to retreat to his ribs. After that, Lucius would recall no more. The room fell into total chaos around him in an unrecognizable blur. There was yelling and flashing of spells and shots that littered the air and streamed by his sides, but Lucius was only aware of the blood that seeped through his fingers. In what seemed like only seconds he felt his knees buckle and himself fall in slow motion to the ground, his knees hitting the tile floor in a numbed pain as a green spell cracked over his shoulder. Blind to it all, it took a moment longer for Lucius who sat on his knees bent over, to slow his dissociation and bring his eyes to see again in that of the current running world. Realizing he was still in the kitchen, his eyes focused quickly on the green haze that floated over the floor and rose half way up his kneeling self. The toxic glow in the darkness told him of what transpired during his shock; the silence echoing the tale of recent sins.

Lucius filched as he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

"There was someone up the stairs." Severus voice hovered above his ear. "You're wounded, but not dying." The feeling of tugging up on his robe pulled Lucius to his feet slowly.

"Where is the girl?" his voice hissed, warped between painful breaths as his knees gave away and he found himself back on the tile.

"She ran upstairs. Mcnaire is following her. Here, take this."

Without hesitation Lucius gulped down the potion that with anyone else he would have asked, and even inspected the liquid, but Severus was different, the trust Lucius holding for the man being true and well earned a long time ago. Feeling the pain subside and the blood begin to slow to nothing, Severus helped him up to his feet and together, they moved towards the stairs.

"Walk soft."Severus warned as they moved up the first step, "I can't fully heal you until the bullet is out. "

Half way up, Lucius pulled away, straining his pride given strength to walk fully on his own using the the wooden banister instead for assistance.

"Wait. Lucius huffed. "Something isn't right." He explained, stopping his steps at the top of the stairs and glancing around the hallway corner anxiously.

Severus instantly understood what his associate meant and he stopped at Lucius side to listen. The house sat quiet. Unnaturally quiet for the situation and they passed a glance before continuing. Moving on as quietly as Lucius could muster, they quickly checked behind every door, cleared every room and locked every closet that lined the darkened, upstairs hallway, but, it was the dead man on the floor that told a story tracing to the room at the end of the hall. Upon approach, both men could could feel Mcnaire's magic radiating through the door along with a darkened feeling of another form of strong potential energy that brought them to stall before entering.

Being the wounded, Lucius placed his hand on the door handle and with a nod from Severus, threw it open. Pushing on into the room wit htheir wands extended, the two stopped their advance and froze when they saw Mcnaire in front of them, slouched over unconscious under a trail of blood that slid down to where he lay unconscious. In their distraction, they didn't see what stepped from the shadows, and they spun around in a hurry when the bedroom door slammed shut. Eyes widening, it was Jessica whom stood stalk in front of the exit wearing a straight face under messy hair and teary eyes.

"Ah love," Lucius huffed with a dark, thankful chuckle, "thank goodness we found you. Come now." Lucius cooed dangerously again, reaching his hand out towards the girl for a second try.

The next thing that happened, was the last either of them would remember. She had closed eyes tight and with a splash of hot air that touched their faces, Lucius and Severus would fall into the black abyss of unconsciousness with Mcnaire.

 **Severus:**

Severus had been the first to wake hours later when the sun was high in the sky and lit the house that continued to sit in deathly silence. He pulled himself painfully to his feet and grabbed onto the bedpost when his vision spun and flipped. Removing his mask for proper air, he looked around the waving room and assessed their situation. It was bedroom of a young girl that they had entered and from what Severus would guess, it had been Jessica's. Pinks, reds and whites color the space as pictures and posters hang on the walls and sit on shelves and furniture tops. A pink wooden toy box sits in the corner as the bed juts out from the opposing wall covered by a pink canopy and made up with red Disney printed sheets. He found the very pale Lucius still on the deep red carpeted floor circled by a sopping darkness that had drained from his wound and mouth in the hours that had past. Mcnaire was still leaned slouched against the wall and Severus frowned in a disgust as the blood that trailed down the wall matched that of the light red wall paper. Giving a slip of a potion to each, both men found their lives and awoke soon after.

The team of three would go on to half heatedly search the house, each knowing the girl was far gone. They knew this as fact, but they would search anyway. It was a sense of fear driven responsibility that pushed them to do so through their wounds and damages and if the Dark Lord asked, at least they wouldn't be lying. The family was dead. The mother, the father and brother lay open eyed on the kitchen tile as the anonymous shooter lay sprawled on the second story hallway floor. The second young girl, the innocent, lay dead inside a closed closet.

A mission of complete disaster, all three men wished for the death given to the family and would soon apperate from the death stricken house, by now with Lucius leaning heavy on both men. For now, Severus's top priority would be healing Lucius and Mcnair before the Dark Lord summoned them all again, a time limit unknown, the outcome of their existence up for grabs until.

They didn't know why their master was so interested in this young girl and they each choose not to ask themselves or each other. They hardly remembered what happened at all and with vague points they would each retell of what they could to Voldemort. But, of course, words did nothing against their actions and results and they were each punished accordingly for their failure to gather the girl, the target, that had been lost to them for now.

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	2. Chapter 2

****Chapter 2: Demons in my Days****

Enjoy!

 *****Addiction topic*****

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Hogwarts - 1987

 **Severus Snape**

Severus Snape lets out a low groan that comes from deep within his chest as he rolls over from his side and onto his back. Opening his eyes he focuses on the deep green tapestries that hung over his bed and thought back to the days where he was able to rise to the morning and go, but, the constant abuse of the Dark Lord left his young body sore and stiff every morning instead. Not even in his mid 30's yet, his knees cracked as he stood and his neck tightened as if it were going to give out as he pulled his legs over the side of the bed.

 _This war couldn't end fast enough._ He thinks to himself as he rubs a bruised, painful spot on his bicep.

Rolling his eyes sarcastically at his own thoughts, he runs his fingers through his hair. _What did it matter?_

It wasn't like he'd ever be "normal" again, anyway.

He had been left affected too deeply by the horrors of his past and to ever be able to fully move on seemed like an expectation far out of his reach. Memories of cold floors under his skin rippled his mind as his fingers grazed chilled desk tops, while the motion of escaping blood running from open wounds burned from under his healed skin and behind his skull nightly. Through his days as he would travel his way through the halls of Hogwarts blinking away ghost memories of his own broken bones and escaping blood, the pain he moved through on the same stone floor as the students did now. He was haunted by the screams of the cruciatus curse ripping from both his own throat and the throats of his victims, he would always remember desperate weeping for a God that wouldn't save them, and Severus knew that he would never be able to shake any of it.

Severus Snape's life was over while his body still lived on. His life did not allow friendship or affection of the slightest which makes a man turn cold after many years. The initial disconnection was easy, every sense of trust Severus once held had already broken a long time ago by enough people he once kept close. The Dark Lord was a ruthless controller with a love for torturing to get what he wanted with no emotional limit; only meant to kill and to cause pain where it pleased. After having traveled places he could never come back from and seeing things that would haunt his being for the rest of days, Severus simply figured it was easier to let no one care about him at all and in turn, not to care for anyone either.

Sighing to himself, he takes up stride through his private office quarters and into the lavatory where he stops before the sink and dips his hands under the running faucet. Taking in the warmth that waves over his cut and calloused fingers he splashes water over his face before leaning heavily on his arms, propping himself against the porcine skin. Taking a moment to look at his shirtless self in the mirror, his eyes trace the memories of addiction and bad choices that scarred and marked across his chest, neck and marked his arms. His eyes traced the dark lined veins that bled into his blackened branding that reminded him of the when the weight of his existence finally broke his young shoulders and brought him to escape the only way he knew how, the only way his had father ever taught him.

No one seemed to notice his new found habit at first, and he seemed to get away with his act for a good while. But, just like he knew, it was one high decision that would ruin the rest of his life. Severus would never be able to forgive himself nor would he ever get a proper chance of reconciliation and that in it's self was enough to keep a crack in his heavy weighted shoulders. It had been a short time before the death of Lily when he had pushed to the man who felt like a father to every student of Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore. First, they only talked about foolish, pointless things as his arm itched, but soon he was crying and rambling gore and murder while promising to a life of light between shivering lips. After that night where the headmaster's hand rest on the kneeling young man's shoulder, Severus would swear the clouds broke for the heavens to see him brought into trust by the greatest wizard of the age.

Severus was dead already inside. A hollow feeling, where he coughed up webs and spiders that would repel and chase away. For the next years and into in the eve of the strength gaining storm, he would feel the chill of isolation now more than ever.

 _Two years,_ Severus pushes to himself as he buttons his shirt and robe, _Harry Potter will come to Hogwarts._

 _This will all be over soon._

He sighs a final time before stepping through the exit while pulling on the face that showed his irritation towards life.

At least, if not anything else, he felt with every step that he was indeed making Lilly proud.

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 **Haven**.

It had been cold last night.

A deadly reminder of the oncoming winter, but, the money Haven stole that day would give her enough to rent a night's sleep in a barn a few miles from the city where she covered herself in hay and ate from a can. As she ate, she made plans to adjust with the air, to travel the city dumpers of the always busy Saturday crowds and wasteful apartment dwellers.

Tomorrow, she would travel by train to the financial district of London to search for what would get her through the next few days before continuing on to pit pocketing which always promised a good payout on weekends in expensive people with heavy pockets. Through the day she would collect a heavy jacket , a few zipper sweaters, a hat, a second layer of thick pants, along with socks and potential shoes but for now, that night, Haven would fall asleep warm and with a full stomach, sharing the space with a creeping barn cat and huffing horses.

...

Once her jacket had been switched and her socks changed with those much cleaner, she stood hidden, cast in shadow away from the midday sun in the alleyway opening. She was preparing herself for her next job, her more dangerous job. Watching well mannered and beautiful people pass by her unknowingly she hoped for success and with a deep breath, pulled her hood up and pushed herself from the alleyway and into a hurrying crowd.

Now that she was warm with more clothing hidden in a secure place, her target was cash and from there, food. So, she would travel through the crowded streets, bumping and picking from purses and pockets, crediting her innocence to her age which at some point over the last few days had noticed had lessened in it's charm. She had turned thirteen at some point a few days ago and noticed herself losing her innocent, childlike face for a strong jaw and prominent cheek bones and cold, stricken eyes.

She was growing up.

Someday's she would beg for money, it was a safer option and she would linger close to friends for protection but most days the payout wasn't worth it compared to picking pockets and the rush of the steal. It was a job that could get you punched and beaten, or worse, could get you forced into foster care or passed off to an locked down institution. But, unlike the other children that she watched travel with their mothers and families daily, her gaze would drop from a life she was never allowed as Haven had no other choice than to live the way she did. Her life was to rely on herself to survive in a world where her parents had died and no other family would take her.

Slowing her steps she allowed a new wave of people to quickly walk past her and from there decided to stroll a few streets before picking up her game once more. As a time passed, her eyes settled on a tall man dressed in a long, black coat that hung open waving close to him in his steps. His hair was thick and shoulder length, dropping over the sides of his face and blocking his peripherals for her advantage.

 _Perfect._

Haven smiled as her heart began it's rush, her eyes zeroing in just as a predator in hunting.

She slipped behind him, passing people and closing the space slowly, she's taking time to observe her target. He was tall and thin and did not look in the best of physical shape, she watched his left pocket swing with weight as his stride continued onward confidently. Sliding closer, her steps now matched his, now testing his attention and assessing his financial worth by clothing stitch and personal decoration. Her timing would match with the opening of a long allyway and with one smooth move she leaned into him as if she tripped, controlling her weight to fall against him, her hands making their way into his pocket, pulling whatever she felt.

"Sorry!" She exclaimed, and used his push to pull out her hand and take off down the open alley.

She broke to a hard toe jump run but was immediately yanked back by her arm. To her shock, he had his fingers wrapped around her wrist, his eyes shining venomously and with a murderous anger as he yanked her back towards him. With an expert wrist twist, she broke free and took off into the city traffic, dodging and weaving the squealing taxis to the the other side of the street where she leaped onto a row of newspaper containers and spun around quickly. Her eye's met his for the fleeting moment she needed to see his foot land land firmly on top of the hood of a horn blaring taxi before taking off again..

With a quick jump, she leapt back into the crowd and slid quickly into a near-by ally.

She didn't know if she lost him, but she ran a familiar route until she could breath no more. Full of immediate turns and chain linked fences she knew far too well, only the most advanced free-runners with already had knowledge of the route could accomplish the feat quickly enough to catch up.

With one last turn, she had made her way to an exit rout where on both sides were open to busy street and she slid herself into a small crevice between the shadow of two buildings. The brick walls were stories high and the space was a single person slot that only someone of her age and stature could fit standing comfortably in. She choked on her breaths that cried for more air as she tried not to pass out as she shuffled as far back as she could until the walls connected into the point and her back was chilled by the brick. She listened blindly to the sound of silence from the small slot of the illumined outer ally and after a minute, her breathing began to slow and her body softened. She found her mind moving from panic to where she was and she slipped her hand into her pocket to pull out her gain to assess it's worth. She had what weighed in her hand like a hearty bag of coins that were held in an old fashioned, deep green coin purse with a silver tightening string and a polished wooden stick. The stick she had felt slip from the mans sleeve when her fingers grasp for air on the first release, and as she examined it thoroughly and saw it was was made of deep brown polished wood with a hand carved handle formation at one side.

She had enough time to smile at the stick in her hand when without warning a pop erupted from out in the ally and a hand whipped into the crevice, grabbing her arm tightly before violently yanking her. She tried resisting as long as she was able, struggling to use whatever grip she could find on the cold brick sides and the stone ground under her heels. But, the stranger was strong and she was ripped from the small space and thrown into the larger, open alleyway where she used her weight by tumbling to her knees to force his grip to break way. Immediately stumbling a few steps she pulled herself up and turned wide eyed when she realized the person who pulled her from the ally and now stood tall in the light, was the same black haired man she had pit-pocketed and who had followed her across the street.

She stared in shock as the heavy moment of meeting wore on in silence, her boots planted firmly on the ground, her fingers tightening around the wood that felt as it were warming in her palm. The look in the man's black eye's struck fear into her soul and there was no doubt to his impending violence. She had been caught before by men like this, men who didn't mind forcing in a fist or a kick to her, sometimes more if the opportunity was 'right'. Nothing was worse than a thieving street rat, no crime easier to get away with than the beatings to a child of the gutter.

Haven went and did the only thing she could think of and raised the wand at the man who took his first step, pointing the tip directly between his eyebrows. Keeping her eyes on the man her thoughts left physicality as she slipped into a world she created long ago. A world where she was strong and powerful. A world where she could conquer all with this new magic wand she was holding tightly in her hand.

The man straightened up and gave a chuckle, his first sign of humanity while taking lightened steps towards her.

"Give that to me." The man's voice was quiet but his eyes and energy sparked her skin and rose the hair on the back of her neck and arms.

With a flick of her wrist, a small spark erupted and the man froze and lowered his gaze to her as she stood silent and wide eyed.

"You don't know what you're doing you silly boy. Give that to me! Now!" The man hissed, taking another step closer and reaching out with one hand.

"I will not." She said quietly, more to herself than for him as her own steps were made backwards.

The man's eyebrow arched and Haven found she had enough with all of this. Pulling her arm back she gave one powerful thrust at her elbow, bringing a thick blue beam to burst from the wands tip that was immediately broken with a wave of his own hand, but, he retreated a few steps back nonetheless.

From there they stared silently at each other, Haven's stomach churning with nausea at an unnatural feeling lingered in the air.

"Look here lad!" The mans voice growled, "I don't know how you got off the groun-"

"I'm not a boy!" Haven bit harshly, thrusting the wand threateningly towards the stranger this time it's tip giving no effect.

She came off fearless for her being. She had to. She had no other choice but to stand strong with her voice held stiff and dominating, for she felt confident in her violent abilities and what she believed would be a lacking of in her assailant. Her other hand slipped behind her back and her fingers wrapped around the handle of her trusty pocket knife, a weapon she always carried. She would take a quick punch or kick, but if he had plans of going further, she was sure to fight back with her silver blade.

The man's voice stalled his next words, faulting on how to properly respond.

"Why aren't you on school grounds?!" He demanded with an authoritative voice after a moment.

Haven furrowed her brow in confusion and after a moment the man peered at her just the same. A small tingle erupted behind Havens eyes that she at once rubbed at and tried to blink away. It wasn't until she took control of her attention and with a strong connection, created imagery of locking doors. Seeing the mans eyes flicker away, almost meditatively after the tension suddenly dropped and she was left feeling open and insecure for reasons she didn't fully understand.

"How old are you?" his voice was quiet and graveled like stone as his neck turned to check the space on either side of them and above them.

Her voice held caution as she pushed out her strength quickly, "Thirteen." she answered confidently.

She took a step back as his black eyes flickered to her and looked her up and down, "and, I am not your teacher?"

Her head shook no and she watched the man take another step closer.

"And, you are not a student?"

She shakes her head again and takes a cautionary step back, her palm warming under the wand once again.

As if the man noticed her growing anxiety, he stopped his steps and opened his hands at his sides for her view, giving a sign of submission before addressing her again.

"Do that again."

When she didn't respond, with a slice of irritability he elaborated further.

"What you did with that towards me, do it again."

A moment of silence passed again before her grip began to loosen and the tip of the wand tilted downwards as a shoulder was shrugged.

With an orchestrated move he stepped out of the way of the wand, exposing a stacking of boxes behind him while maintaining his distance,

"Try."

His voice was said from under his breath as his long finger pointed to the stack of boxs and she nodded weakly. Taking a deep breathing, she focused up all her attention and felt the pulse of the wand's warmth tingle her hand again. Her eyes rest and focused ahead on the box that lay down the line of the wand and with a sharp flick, a red light shot from the tip and the box exploded sending cardboard pieces falling everywhere. Dropping the wand and stumbling back in shock, she trips in her panic over another pile of shipping boxes and falls roughly to the tarmac.

Quickly she crawled back as she watched his steps approach, leaving the the wand on the ground and instead extending a hand towards her as he glanced at the ally end over her. She ignored him and pulled herself up on own and as she did her hood fell back exposing her unevenly cut black, spiky hair.

"Where are your parents?" He asked her cautiously, taking in her clothing and grungy appearance.

"Gone."

She tried to ignore the itch that slid under her skull and thought of herself closing a castle door that would force it to stop. To her surprise, along with the feeling of sadness at her admittance, so was locked away the tingling.

"What is your name?" He asked sternly, glaring away with a stone awkwardness she could feel radiating off him.

"Haven."

He gave a disbelieving glance but said nothing and instead with a deep breath in, straightened up his posture and looked around the quiet alley before continuing.

"I think you should come with me." He said, sounding unsure of his own words.

"But -"

With a snap of his fingers his wand flew off the ground and pulled directly into his palm and closing fingers. Nodding, his eyes never breaking from her, he placed himself beside her, his black eyes shining dead and void like while a slight urgency sat hidden in his features. He looked away and pointed his direction and wand to a similar box and with a flick of the wrist, the box lifted quietly from the ground and floated over before setting gently down before them.

She stared at the box, then at the man who silently nodded.

…

"So, what's your name anyway?" Haven asked, stopping next to the man who stood before the end of the ally, watching the people pass by without a notice.

She looked up curiously as the man took a slow breath.

"Severus. My name is Severus Snape." He said in a slow sigh.

"You have a funny name," she smirked.

"Thank you." His voice grumbled.

Without a minute more to stall, his hand tightened behind her neck and he guided the young girl out into the hurry of people.


	3. Chapter 3

****Chapter 3: Finding Fables****

* * *

 **I** ** **would love to hear what you think. R &R please.******

 **Finding Fables**

* * *

"What the bloody hell do you mean by, you " _found"_ her?"

Minerva's voice was low and forced calm, but Severus could pull the sharp drastic edge in her tone as she looked around the man to the young girl who sat on her couch. The child was hunched over, hood drawn and feet kicking her legs back and forth, her toes just unable to reach the floor as her fingers picked nervously at the armrest.

It was quickly after their arriving when Minerva had placed the girl in her family room before pulling Severus into the darkened kitchen to aid her with tea, which is where they now spoke in low tones.

"I don't know how else to explain this, Minerva!" His voice growled anger, "She's not a student, but she used my wand against me.. I…" Severus's voice broke in the slightest of weakness that brought the old witch's eyes to him, "I also can't get into her mind." Severus set the kettle on the stove heavily turning his shoulder from Minerva whom stood in silence unsure of the eternity of truth behind his words.

"I also had Lucius check the records. Nothing is noted so I know her magic lays unknown." His admitting was heard in a very low tone.

"So Lucius Malfoy knows?" Minerva's glared irritably at the mans black cloaked shoulder.

"He's owed me a favor and I figured her magic was recorded." Severus sighed, turning back and meeting the woman's eyes. "Honestly, maybe I had plans of turning her in for that reward." A cobra smirk broke his lips as he slid his eyes on to that of the igniting stove while ignoring the feeling of Minerva once again weighing in his words behind heavy eyes.

"I will never understand your friendship with that man." She sighed, circling the table in her approach to the shadowed professor.

"Then how wonderful it must be that you don't have to." He spit,"Stay on topic!" his eyes flashed towards an invisible line on the floor that he expected the unfazed women to stay behind

"Fine, Severus." She sighed as her steps casually walked the edge of his line, "let me see if I understand properly." her palms lowered to the table top. _"'You'_ … _found_ a thirteen year old orphan, who never received her Hogwarts letter. Okay. It has happened. But, and here is where I begin to cast doubt because, now you're also telling me she is untraceable?"

"Don't say it like that." Severus sighed pushing away from the stove and making room between them.

"Well, is that what happened or not?!" Minerva quietly demanded taking another step closer.

The man struggled with the black and white but after a moment, with his eyes glaring angrily at the lightly steaming tea pot, his hand waved and he admit in a solid, emotionless tone, "Yes."

Minerva stared at the man before her, unknowing how to continue or where to start. Giving up and unable to process anymore from the infuriating man, the elderly witch glanced across the kitchen and through the small hallway and into the family room.

"I wonder why you brought her here?" she asked out loud to the quietly ticking wall clock.

Neither the clock nor Severus would respond. Instead, the man would cross his arms and lean his back against the counter like an angry child, his eyes resting over the headmistresses head and focusing on the rooster print wallpaper in the corner of the kitchen. Minerva understood his silence and gave a nod before making her way to the cabinets as the pot began to hiss.

She had been sympathetic during Severus's school years, as a young man she insured his worth at Order meetings, and then at some point between now and then, a mutual respect and a form of trust was formed between the two heads of houses. The man would be hard to tolerate most days but, Minerva had seemed to adapt, taking notice to his triggers which made him slightly easier to manage. They shared a sort of friendship full of lovely arguments and harsh words, but there were these very rare occasions that allowed her to understand it all.

Minerva sighed with the sound of the ticking wall clock and she placed the cups down on their appropriate saucers. Severus would go on to mix the tea for his bidding before sliding the china across the counter to Minerva with the back of his hand without another word. Picking up the tea, Minerva lay her gaze on the stone man for a quiet, ignored moment before turning around to approach the girl who quickly looked up from her seat.

"Good evening child." Minerva started in a tone only meant for the broken as she entered through the living room threshold, "My name is Professor Mcgonagall."

The older women spoke in a light, warm tone and she smiled a smile that could relax and sooth. Placing the steaming cup of tea on the table in front of the guest, Minerva would place herself on the sitting couch across from the child who instead of engaging in any sort of interest, kept her eyes cast towards the shadowed kitchen. Minerva would watch the child stare for a long, quiet moment until the form Severus broke from the darkness of the night cast home and leaned himself against the threshold of the dimly lit living room. Minerva followed her gaze and meet eyes with her younger colleague before she looked back to realize the child now stared directly at her.

"You've met my friend Severus, I see." Minerva speculated gently and when no response was granted, Minerva would wave an inviting hand towards the tea before taking a sip of her own.

"He tells me you can do special kinds of magic tricks. Is that true?"

Haven's eyes flashed back to the witch and silently she gave a nod.

"He tells me you're thirteen years old?"

Another nod.

"That's wonderful," Minerva took another sip, "the age of the adulthood some call it. Haven,... that is your name?"

Another nod.

"Has anyone ever asked you about schooling?" She would ask with another seemingly casual sip of tea, "or maybe an owl came to you at one point?"

Minerva tried to be careful with her words while she kept a grandmotherly tone, but Haven seemed to be no fool or in search of help of any kind, for she sat in continued silence giving no useful information while a casting a cold look from within her eyes.

After a tense moment of waiting, Minerva turned at her shoulders to look up at her colleague, asking him for assistance with a strained expression.

Giving a sigh that came from deep within his chest, Severus pushed himself off the wall while rolling his eyes. As if he traveled as water, his fluid steps moved him to the child side and he landed himself on the cushion next to Haven. The ticks of the clock would be counted as the two women watched him sit with his hands pressed together on either knee of his opened legs. When he turned his eyes to Haven, he leaned forward with another quiet sigh and rest his elbows on his knees, before glancing at Minerva before pulling his wand from his sleeve and handing the child by the wooden handle. With hesitance that prompted a head nod, her small fingers wrapped around the black wood and slid it from his unwrapping grasp. He would look away then, and she would follow his gaze to a framed portrait that hung on the wall at her side. Maintaining the soothing of silence that the Potions Master longed for, he gave her a final nod before Haven would take a deep breath and give a flick the wand in the proper direction.

With a gout of fire the portrait immediately burst into flames, splintering the frame apart in different directions. She dropped the wand the moment the damage ignited and as the wood flew back into the palm of it's owner, Minerva would glare irritably at Severus who himself wore a self accomplished grin as he quickly extinguished the flames and mended the fixture.

"And, how do you know The Ministry didn't track that?" Minerva asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Because, she cast a similar spell _in_ the Ministry and we waited for someone to come running."

"I'm tired of this." A hard voice rose up from the seat next to, Severus. "Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" Haven stated with her voice angry and her words surprising both adults who now turned their attention to her.

* * *

 **** Flash Back****

She remembered the trip to the Ministry of Magic, and remembered the grasp Severus had held on the back of her neck the entire time. She was told nothing about the place, only ordered to follow him which for whatever reason she had. She was given no time to herself and was rushed through leaving little time for looking. She gathered it was an important place where he had taken her, what with it's secret entrances, expensive floors and high domed ceiling. She noted that most people's clothing looked sophisticated and rich with heavy pockets while others carried boxes of screeching things and paper airplanes flew vicariously through the air above their heads.

Old fashion robes seemed to be the fashion at this job and Haven found herself immediately uncomfortable and out of place among the curious gazes of those she passed. There was an easiness to these people; an easiness that brought her chuckle as she slipped her hand into a passing strangers robe, successfully withdrawing a coin bag undetected by its patron.

In a flash, his feet had stopped and his fingers wrapped around her wrist in a painful, constricting hold, his eyes flashing at her that brought up a involuntary flinch.

"Not here!" Severus hissed yanking the bag from her hand as his grip on her wrist dropped and his fingers around her neck tightened and tugged her closer.

For the rest of the travel, Haven would do her best to ignore the strange looks from the few people that noticed them and after a few turns she found they had entered an empty hallway where eventually they landed before a blank, wooden, office door. There, behind that wooden barrier, she would granted the 'privilege' of meeting the venom spitting cobra which was that, Lucius Malfoy.

Even at first glance, all he reminded her was of every shining example of every evil villain in every book or movie. Strikingly handsome and wearing what looked as the most expensive of robes, his movements were liquid as his voice came as a velvet purr. She quickly felt a darkened power pulsing from his walking staff the moment it touched the stone floor and his aura rose the room, bringing up the hair on the back of her neck. She would sink beneath his venomous grey eyes as Severus continued to pull her with more force towards the beautiful aristocratic creature who stood leaning against the large, deep wooden desk.

"Stop." Severus's voice echoed in the room that staticed, and triggered an insulted face from the blond. Nonetheless, Haven felt the energy pull back dramatically as he lift his black leather gloved hand in front of him and curled his fingers.

"So this is her then?" Lucius asked dully, stopping before his seeming acquaintance as his eyes dragged over the disheveled girl with slight disgust.

"Lucius,"

"Severus." Lucius interrupted, his eyes meeting the mans black inkwell gaze while his voice dropped suddenly into a dangerous hiss. "I've promised a thousand times already, and I will not assure you again. Answer my question or leave."

A moment of sizing dominance through glares would pass before Severus dropped his gaze and nodded. Haven watched Lucius hold his glare on Severus for a moment longer before turning his heel and walking around to the back of the desk.

"Well the-"

"Who are you?" Haven interrupted, flinching at once under Lucius's suddenly sharp glare.

"No one you want to know." Lucius said slowly in poison in attempt to silence her with fear.

"Then why does he get to know?" Haven pushed along, looking at her guide.

Lucius's lip twitched but he finished pulling the wand out from the drawer and slithered over to her.

"Hush."

Lucius would go on to instruct nothing, only hand her the wand before stepping away, directing her with his eyes to the large wooden desk as he landed at the side of the, Snape. Passing her gaze, Haven looked to Severus who gave her a sharp nod and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

.

 ***********End Of Flash Back***********

* * *

 **Haven:**

Now she sat here, in this old woman's house that smelled of old person life and dust, somewhere off in a quiet part of England away from the only train station to the city. She had been pulled place to place like a obedient dog, silently doing what this stranger wanted and her patience had finally run out. She spent a whole day being dragged and shoved into places, to and from rooms she'd never seen before with no explanation of what or where she was going next and frankly, she was hungry and had enough. For her, she was talking to freaks in stupid outfits with stupid names who did stupid magic tricks. All of this was stupid and the least anyone could do, was be nice to her.

Minerva glanced down at the angry girl and rose to her feet.

"Severus, may I speak to you in private?"

Haven turned her gaze to Snape, who stood at once and gave a slight shrug at her, turning without a word and slipping once again into the kitchen.

"What's your opinion?" Minerva asked once they were out of view.

"She's unmarked and unusually strong in more ways than magic," Severus explained, pointing out her traits and the refusal of tea, "All with mental walls thicker than over half the adults I've encountered.."

"In yet you didn't hand her over to the Ministry. Why would you give up such a plentiful bounty?"

Severus stayed quiet and examined the planks of wood that made up the table top.

"Severus." Minerva pushed again.

"You know as well as I do that the Ministry is corrupted and full of spies. The thought of the Dark Lord acquiring such amount of unrestricted and moldable power is... unsettling."

"What about, Lucius?"

"He won't tell anyone."

It was the strength in his voice that would turn Minerva from furthering asking any questions about Lucius. True, that man was not a man to be trusted in most cases, but this was Severus and when it came to Severus, Lucius had yet to break a word.

"Should we alert the Order then?" Minerva asked exhausted and running out of options.

"I will contact, Albus."

Minerva nodded and looked back to the child.

"What's her real name?" Minerva's voice was light and thoughtful.

"She refers to herself as Haven," Minerva turned to see Severus watching her also, "though I place reason in the suspicion of that being more of a dream than a name."

"How can you possibly know that?" Minerva asked looking back slowly at the child.

After a pause, he pulled together an honest response while turning his glare blindly at some overhead cabinets in the kitchen. .

"I don't know."

Something else sat festering in the protection of Severus mind. He was bothered by her familiar energy that tugged at his subconscious, only irritating him further when finding no reason behind it.

But he wouldn't say that. Not to anyone.

"Where will she stay tonight? Albus-"

"I don't want to stay with anyone. I want to leave."

The two adults turned and looked down at the voice that broke their conversation. Haven had gotten up and come to them without any notice. She was fed up and angry and acting out over her setting in fear and washing of overwhelming exhaustion towards the sudden attention and the events of the day.

She wasn't happy, was very hungry and she wanted to leave.

Minerva opened her mouth to speak but Severus stepped ahead and began.

"Go on then." Both Haven and Minerva stared at him.

"You wish to leave? You may leave." He insisted.

"Severus!" The older women hissed as he raised his hand to her.

"No, Minerva. If she wants to leave, she can." Severus's eyes glared at the older witch and he tilted his head slightly before turning back to Haven. Straightening his back he held his head high in a threatening posture as he waited.

Haven stared at Severus, then at the women, then the front door before returning to Snape. The cold chill of outside was hardly gone from her bones and the failure to collect rent today would push her out into the weather.

"But." The darkness of Severus's voice brought the chill of outside in. "If she were to ever wish for somewhere to go. She can just remember this address." Leaving on that, Severus moved into the kitchen, his dark figure fading into the shadows soundlessly. Minerva and Haven stood silently together, the weight of his words hanging in the air.

"Well. Go on then." Minerva easily forced a strictness into her voice.

Haven took cautious steps backwards until her hand met the brass door handle. With a turn of the knob she watched as Minvera started to turn her heel and and began to follow Severus as the door was opened. A sudden bite of cold winter air lashed her face that immediately shivered her bones and pushed her back inside and the door to shut quickly.

As her eyes held on the wood her breath caught in her throat as she felt the eyes landing on her back. She knew she had to turn around, that as much as she wanted to she couldn't just stand and stare at the door. So, with a deep breath she rotated around before rising her eyes to meet those of the adults who watched her.

"Problems?" Severus asked in a sarcastic bite as he strolled back into the living room, sipping from a hot cup of tea and raising an eyebrow.

"It's cold out." Haven mumbled looking at the steaming cup.

"And? You want to leave remember?"

"Yeah..- I know, but..-"

"But?" Severus said sharply his voice raising.

"I don't want to anymore..." Her voice broke against her will which immediately brought her to feel small and weak and her to eye's sting. Glaring at one spot in the wooden floor before the darkened professors toes, she tried to burn a hole in the ground with her embarrassment. Through her anger she once again felt the the familiar itch she had felt on and off all day and she rose her fingers to her temples and pushed it out as she had every other time.

She was tired, and would miss Severus's eyebrows furrowing as he turned away from her.

"Can I.. go with you...Maybe."

When the girl referred to him, Severus stopped his retreat into the kitchen and stood stalk with his back to her.

Minerva quickly spoke up, "my dear, I don't think Severus is prepared for comp-"

"Yes. Yes she can." Severus said in a low voice as he slowly turned around.

Minerva stared for a moment as Severus did his best to avoid the meaning behind her glare.

"Severus.. Do you really think that's.. appropriate due to your current-"

"It was her request, and after all-" Severus turned to Haven, "It will only be for one night..."

* * *

 **yay! read and review please and thank you!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 : Spoils.**

* * *

 **Haven:**

With a small gust of wind, her body broke into a shiver as their feet trudged on through the growing was raining much harder now, the falling water casting a colder chill than just what hung in the air. He had purchased her a bag of crisps and pop when she protested her hunger but was given the option to hold them until later, or to bring her hands to the air so that she could feed herself. With Severus in the lead, they passed identical housings that lined identical streets and she held her coats tightly around herself and tilted her face away from the wind with her chin buried deep in her sweaters. She thought of how astounding it was that the man who walked just slightly in front seemed so unaffected by the chill, as he continued to travel with a confident vulture like stride and a glare set to match.

They would continue walking in silence until the yards turned small and fenced, the buildings turned to gated shops, until Severus steered them under an awning aside the empty main street where without notice, Haven, who had her eyes watching the heels of the man, had walked right into him.

When she looked up, she met the dark mocking smirk breaking the linings of his mouth.

"Lesson one," His tone matched that of the vile and mockery he gave all his students, "always keep your head up. Lesson two," He held up two black gloved fingers for a moment, "there is more than one way to track magic and all magic leaves a trail just as every person does.. Even you. Tell me a way we can move freely and undetected by the ways of magic."

Even though Severus used his harsh teaching tone, the one of directness and inpatients that many would look away from, Haven held eye contact and thought to herself before pulling up in a nervous but audible tone, "We don't use magic?"

"Correct."

Pushing his hood slightly more forward, Severus turned around and led her down a set of nearby stairs that lead into the belly of the city.

Being the very wee hours of the pouring weekend morning, there was little traffic and the platforms were only lined by a few sullen looking individuals and bottomed out homeless. Severus would keep them away from the little amount of interaction that could be made by the strung out and propositioning, and together they stood at each others side in silence at the end of the track. It had been when he paid for her ticket that somewhere inside her, an anger started rising. He offered housing to her, but he acted as if the offer was forced and she didn't like that he wasn't as kind as his offer.

As much as she wanted to turn around and leave on a separate train, something inside continued to stop her.

It was the realness of every child's fantasy that was currently playing out before her, that had held her with the strange man. And as she followed him aimlessly though sliding doors of rumbling trains and changing platforms, with eyes that for a long time kept on his back, she found the events of the day reeling through her mind as her walk turned into a autopilot travel. These people, their names, the clothing they all wore...and the magic. It was everything out of a story book. A fair princess saved from hell on the back of a large black crow.

Her small smile faded as the surrounding silence grabbed her attention and halted her steps. Realizing how much she hadn't been watching where she was going, she found herself alone, spinning around in panic on the center of the empty, dual subway platform. The silence screamed in a lasting ring as the eerie silence thickened the air that warned of a darkened approach. Startled, her eyes flew upwards to the newly flickering lights above that only added to the surreal feeling that rose around her.

An echo of squeaking spun her around and her eyes widened on a large, fat rat that stalled a moment before scampering over side of the platform and onto the steel rails of the track below. For a second, she could have sworn that old, fat rat had turned to her and stared right at her before lifting it's paw and... had it really just waved at her?

Finding her steps trailing along with the scampering rats direction, she traces her eyes up the rail and notices with a miss of a heart beat, a figure is standing at the large black mouth of the tunnel. His moon white face shines as the only thing against the voiding blackness that created him and with a foolish bravery she moved up the platform more, trying to get a clearer view of what was on his face. A sudden gasp erupted from her and stalled heart and froze her steps all at the same time. Before her was what looked like a highly deformed man, with what she could only guess was the man having no noes and instead slits that matched his snake like eyes that narrowed in hunger towards her when met. Unable to break away they stared at each other, it's lips breaking into a horrifying smile when a voice that was neither in the air nor in her head sounded, weaving like whisping silk through her skull

In what she can not feel but as a rumble beneath her feet, the station begins to shake around her.

 _ **It's been sssso long...**_ She hears the voice clearly through it's haze, _ **And you have come to ssssso much hurt... I knnnow your pain... and I cannnn teach you how to conquer ittt.. Your magic is different than theirssss... allow me... allow me to make you ... a God.**_

She jumped as a train sped by her from the opposite track and at once a heavy hand lands on her shoulder forcing her to jump around once more. Her heart thumped through her chest as she looked into the force molded concerned eyes of Snape who hovered above her, watching her with a raised eyebrow.

"Where did you go?!" She exclaimed angry, suddenly feeling abandoned.

"Always, keep your head up."

She looked around the tall man to where the deformed man had been standing, but found he had since vanished from the mouth of the blacked out tunnel. She wouldn't mention that she saw Snape follow her gaze before he turned on his heel as the light of their train broke the blackness that approached their platform. Glancing around once more for the entity, Haven followed Severus to the yellow line before stepped onto the train behind him.

After leaving the city they would sit until her eyes would drop, waking when the conductor on the microphone called the last stop. Keeping a heavy hand latched on her forearm, he kept her in her seat until three stops later where they would step off the train and onto a damp, quiet, overgrown platform.

With tired, half opened eyes that would keep his form in direct sight, she noticed a wooden sign as they turned out of the otherwise empty station.

 _ **Spinners End,**_ was etched in basic lettering and she looked up at the back of Severus in confusion as they walked on. She had memorized all the train stops but had never once seen this particular stop or even traveled this far on that same train that always before had turned around.

What felt like longer than it probably was, eventually, as they passed the sets mirror house set ups, he quietly lead her tired, shuffling feet up a single, four step, grey stone stoop. With a glance at her, his hand took the handle and he opened his front door for her to enter first.

Haven held her breath as she stepped into the small home that was only made smaller by copious amount of books and papers that sat stacked and covered the vast majority of surfaces. The room she turned into on her immediate right was dimly lit and already warmed by a roaring fire contained in the hearth along with scattered candles that matched the fashion of the home of the elderly witch.

A sudden, hard breath was pushed out of her in a gasp as the force of the mans hand locked tightly around her throat before shoving her against a nearby wall and off her feet. While he choked her, he forced her to look at him, allowing him to see her wince under the shock of pain as his wand pushed painfully under her ribs.

"I haven't forgotten finding your hand in my pocket, and tonight can go one of two ways." His emotionless, orblike eyes glared at her, "Lucky for you, it's your decision. You can either, attempt taking something that is not yours and I will kill you just as I've killed thief's in the past. _Or,_ and I personally recommended this option, you stay silent and keep your hands to yourself."

She wanted to ask why he even wanted her there. What compelled him to take her request. She wanted to know what was going to happen tomorrow. She wanted to declare she was done with all the pulling around. She wanted to stomp and argue that she was a being as well. She didn't want to do all this again. But, it was already so late and her mind twinged painfully in a sudden attack against her exhaustion that she forced herself to forget. With an irritated growl, Snape released her neck and dropped her feet to his floor before backing away.

"Good. The room is up the stairs and to the left. Second door." Severus whipped around on his heel and left her there just as the sound of a kettles hiss rang through the air from deeper inside the flat.

Left alone she looked around the room from where she stood rubbing her throat. She eyed the covers of the nearby books that were wrapped in old leather, bindings. She examined the beauty of the the hand written scripture that was printed perfectly on old looking papers that sat by her immediate side.

"You can move away from the wall now." He mocked, "unless you've done something wrong already, you have nothing to fear."

She hadn't moved when she heard his nearly silent steps come back into the room, and when he chose to speak, his voice had raised her eyes to him slowly.

Severus placed what looked like a cup of hot coco for her on the small table before sitting himself in a comfortable looking armchair and opening the book on his lap in a concluding motion.

As she took her first steps, carefully she walked to the outer edge of the family room, eyeing all the old leather bound books, animal skulls, trinkets, bottles and jars that were filled with gooey and gross looking things. As she traveled she became numb to the glare Severus would cast towards her watchfully. She was curious towards these things she had never seen and, she guessed, that her interested gazes amused him, why else would he watch her so?

* * *

 **Severus:**

From behind her, his eyes would narrow when he witnessed her small hand move up and lad gently a dull green jar with a small whipping eel like creature inside. He chose to place his cup on the side table loudly, bringing her to spin around and her fingers to tighten into a fist with her withdrawing hand, her eyes set on him in guarded caution.

He nodded, and she cautiously continued her looking.

At one point he would watch her eyes widen on an old, hardcover book that lay on a stand. It was a magical creature book if he remembered properly and he crooked an eye brow when she stopped at it. He watched on in silence as her fingers ran lightly over the parchment page and with a glance in his direction, she pulled the heavy book from the stand and brought it over to him.

"That's a mermaid, right?" she asked, glancing up at him with cautious eyes.

He broke his gaze away from hers and to the pages she held before him. After a glance, he would take the book for himself even though the weight seemed nothing for her trained arms, and he examined the page properly.

"Yes."

" Sirens I think they are called. They're supposed to sing these songs, and it hypnotizes sailors into driving their boats into the rocks."

"Where did you learn that?" He asked with just enough interest for her to accept, and he leaned back into his chair.

"I've read, Oedipus Rex." She stated calmly as if it weren't anything special.

Within his accepting head nod she found a break of comfort with the man and she unzippered her wet jackets and looked at him as where to place it. Soundlessly, he eyed a wooden chair that Haven turned to see before hanging her jackets over the head. She noticed his body tensed when she turned back to him, a familiar motion that she continued closer to him and lowered herself of the floor at his side, her back against the leather couch that sat aside the side table they would share.

"I've read that too." Severus slowly noted as she pulled the hot coco down and he flipped through the pages in thought.

After a moment of thought and flipping, Severus twisted the book around and lowered it to her eye level, his finger pointing at the right page, "What about this one?"

"That's a centaur." Her answer definite, her voice holding her cold street tone as her eyes told of a different story.

"Correct." He nodded as he turned a few pages before settling.

"And this?"

"A pixey. Nasty animals." She glanced up from the page to Severus who gave a huff and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" He decided to push her knowledge.

"Yeah. They are actually really distructive and tend to get people into trouble." She looked up at him with her own sense of pride cracking through her eyes as she received a smirked nod in return. He decided to test the extent of her knowledge and turned to the page explaining Dementors. She moved closer to the book and stared hard at the picture.

"I don't know..Grim Reapers." she sighed shaking her head.

"Do you know this one?" He flipped to his final test that his finger marked.

"A Hippogriff." she said confidently.

Severus leaned back in his chair in thought. Her knowledge seemed to be that of stories and not from education. Still, he figured that at least he wasn't dealing with a complete idiot and that was something to be accepted in this circumstance.

There was something about her. Something he couldn't place that was driving him to a quiet madness.

In time, as he thought to himself, he watched her get lost in the book before her and he would answer as she asked him question after question about different creatures. It was a different style of teaching, one Severus couldn't say he fully hated. Her questions showed interest and her repeating back showed her dedication to remember his words and soon enough, he noticed her sentences slow and her eyes start to droop.

"Time for sleep." He concluded shutting the large book.

"Not yet." She said quickly, stifling a yawn and pulling the book from his grasp and opening it on the floor before her.

He didn't like children much. Hell, he didn't like anyone, and the only reason he could keep control at having his orders ignored was that he was very much exhausted as well.

"Why? He mocked harshly.

"Because, I'll never have another chance..." Her voice broke.

"And, why would you say that?" His eyebrow rose as he watched her in silence.

"Because, this is only for tonight."

Severus's retort caught in his throat as he watched her eye's detrimentally scan the pages not so much reading, but looking at the pictures and taking in all she could. At one point he would move on from his chair in attempt to rile her to the thought of being alone. But, she was used to the darkness and knew its horrors would not touch her here. Ending up only ti continue to watch her silently from the stairs, he waited until she faded away with her cheek pressed against the book. With a flick of his wand, the throw blanket from the couch landed itself gently over the girl, and with a final spell he turned up the stairs as the lights gave away to blackness.

* * *

 **Haven:**

Around nine that morning, Severus Snape slinked down the stairs dressed in semi-loose fitting nightwear that included a T-shirt, long fleece pants and bare feet. In passing, he turned his head and stopped on the bottom stair, his body and mind frozen of all movement. His eye's dropped and held to the child who still slept soundly on the floor that he had somehow forgotten about. Somehow he felt awkward about the situation and the feeling affecting him in his own home immediately set him on a jaw tightening edge.

Making his way into his kitchen he would go on to crack a pair of eggs over a pan and watch them sizzle on the stove. His plan used a few times before seemed to work again and soon enough, Haven came shuffling into the kitchen rubbing her eyes and pulling on her dried coat.

"Thank you for last night, I -"

"Sit." He was short and he stood with his back to her.

"No thank you." Her voice slipped into a chill of the streets she would soon return to, "I have to leave, I have people to meet."

And she did, but her answer was not what he expected and she watched him turn to see her already dressed and zippered with her pack slung over her shoulder. Here, there was a moment of freezing where Haven realized that Severus wasn't sure about releasing her and she took a step back over the threshold into the living room.

"I have food on the stove." his method to stall received only a head shake.

"I appreciate it. I do. But, I have people to meet and it's twenty back from the supposed last stop just to even start heading where I need to go."

Without another choice he gave a sigh and walked through the kitchen and followed her towards the front door. It was then she turned to him, unsure of what to say as the man reached into his pocket and pulled a white envelope that she found being extended to her. It was enough for food and a few nights stay in a barn or on a workhouse cot, more than she could get from a day of stealing and enough to sustain for a few good meals after that..

"Why?" Was all she found herself able to say.

"Final lesson. Never question generosity."

He nodded as her eyes held back pain and he opened the door, watching her head lower and her feet shuffle over the threshold. She started down the stairs defeated. She had forgot the witches address and she didn't remember how to make the train continue past the last stop. Her story was over. The devils illusions casting shadowed hopefulness in evil games. After she this, she would only find magic in stories.

"Two stops after the last stop." Severus voice came quietly from behind her.

"Huh?" She asked turning to look up at him.

"Two stops after the final stop. Yellow line."

"I don't know how." She leveled her weakness with the man.

"You do now."

And with that, he shut the door and she turned around wide eyed before making her way down the street as she repeated his flat number over and over.

….

She had long since left but Severus was still leaned against the inside of the door. He didn't understand why he invited her back, hell, besides the irritating biting of a forgotten past meeting he didn't know why he invited her with him in the first place. His gut twisted, warning him of unknown events to come if things were to be continued. He could walk away right now. He could kick her from this life while saving her own. He could slip her something and drop her off somewhere and tell Minerva whatever he wanted. She would continue her life, oblivious to the fact magic existed outside of books.

She could be saved.

 _But if she were found by the wrong people...-_ He stopped his thoughts and ran his hand through his hair as he let out a low groan.

It was too early for this.

* * *

 **Haven:**

The back roads of London were a dangerous place to tread, and the night only allowed the evil to bleed into main streets. To survive, you had to act the part as well as look it. Being a female among criminals and addicts was a dangerous line to dance and early on she learned people were not kind.

She sat on a hay stack of the generous farm owner's barn and she looks into a dirty mirror she holds with one hand as she clips randomly at her hair, failing in any kind of neatness or equal length. Her hair was a very brown/black and constantly stuck out in different directions, mixing this by using a deeper voice she was a very convincing boy.

Unlike most of the other street kids, she decided not to work at a factory for food and place to sleep. Like most of the orphans, she wanted no part in an orphanage or foster care. She had watched a enough kids cough up blood from the fumes or run away from overcrowded homes to willingly tread in those areas.

A draft blew into the barn and she shivered within her bones, pushing herself deeper into the hay stack and covering herself with a newly purchased blanket.. That night the purring of a nearby barn cat would lull the exhausted and paining girl to sleep.

* * *

In her dreams she stood to her feet and brushed dust from her clothing while looking around the barren and desert-like surroundings. After a silent moment of thought, she pinched herself and when she felt nothing, she realized she was dreaming.

The rattling of a snaketail echoed through the sky like thunder and she spun around to see an older boy standing yards from her by a large dead log that was not there before.

"Hello?" She called, and the boy began walking towards her.

He was an older boy, with short brown hair and wearing a green and black robe with a matching color tie. A silver badge that was pinned over his heart showed a green snake, and above that he wore a gold plated pin that read "Head Boy".

"Hello, Jessica," The boys voice was warm in contrast to his dark smile.

She took steps back and widened her eyes.

"How do you know my name?"

"I never haven't." He stopped walking and showed her his opened hands.

"What do you want?" She asked, and instead of the boy responding, a familiar voice invaded her mind.

 _ **I came to make you a God.**_

The boy smiled as she shook the voice from her head.

"Now here we stand, my love. On the eve of the first page of your story. Every fantasy you've ever dreamed is about to happen and I'll show you how do everything you've ever wished.. Come with me, Jessica." The boys hand was extended, "and I promise no one will ever hurt you again."

"Who are you?" she asked walking up to him.

"My name, is Tom Riddle. "


	5. To Dig A Proverbial Grave

****Chapter 5: To Dig A Proverbial Grave****

* * *

 **Time for a long chapter in hopes of jumping ahead a few years in the next chapter. This means there might be some more than usual spelling issues. Please excuse that.**

 **Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you all enjoy the new chapter. Please R &R.**

* * *

 **Severus:**

He hadn't told her that he probably wouldn't be at the flat if she ever returned, and the embarrassing lack of control he held that day prevented him for saying so. School was in session and he was continuously busy with studies but found time in the middle of the next week to return and search for traces of her.

When he arrived, there was no one and he quietly stepped up to the front door. He ran his hand over the wooden slate and felt his palm pulse as he located where she had knocked a day or so before. Stepping back he half heartedly looked around. Here and there, she had left evidence of her presence that would lay unnoticed to the untrained eye and he looked around before kneeling and sliding a muggle white envelope under the doormat, allowing a corner to lay exposed before turning and apparating back to Hogwarts.

…

That night, Severus Snape sat hunched low in an armchair at the back corner of the staff room. His leg rested on a footstool as his foot twitched irritably. Albus was going on about end of Christmas schedules and exams along with the trip to Hogsmade. He adjusted uncomfortably and rested his elbow on the armrest and started biting his thumb nail in what could be seen as uncharacteristic uneasiness in the man.

His mind was other places and he glanced out the window next to him and watched as the snow piled up. Winter had been easy this year and although he hadn't seen Haven, every week or so he would return to the flat to find the envelope would be replaced with a small stone, all which currently sat in a jar on one of his office shelves, something that he kept promising himself to throw out.

Now, he watched from inside as the snow fell hard and gathered quickly across the land, he had heard from passing students it was going to slip far below freezing tonight.

"Severus?"

Severus's tooth broke through his nail as his attention lifted to the stareing Headmaster.

"Everything alright, Severus?" The old man asked looking over his glasses.

"Yes, my apologizes." He cleared his throat, "I have everything planned and prepared as I do every year, Headmaster. I have also decided to home this Christmas."

Few teachers would look at each other, as the darkened man who never never took leave informed at his first year away. He moved his gaze to the back of the couch in front of him as the headmaster continued talking. He scolded himself mentally. Obviously, this was not the child's first snow, she had been molded for the streets many years ago. It took an irritated moment of self control, but eventually he shut the thought of the child out of his head and allowed his bored state to bring him to linger on other topics.

After all if she did die, he figured, so would most of his current problems.

Severus felt his lip curve upwards darkly as his eyes slid to look out the window again.

….

The next time Severus returned to his flat would be within the final two weeks before Christmas and he noticed the snow on the stoop lay untouched and upon further inspection and pushing of white powder, he found the corner of the envelope still sticking out from under the mat. Bending down, Severus pulled the mat away to see the envelope indeed lay untouched with money still inside. There were no stones or signs of disturbance and the door held no magic aura of her touch. He looked around uncomfortably unsure of what to do, and soon, with no other choice and a quickly fading time limit, he left the envelope where it was and turned around, walked down the stairs and silently walked away.

….

It seemed to Severus, that winter would be a continuing on in a fury that year as the next two days brought more heavy snowfall in a back to back fashion, but eventually, he found himself apparating to the flat after personal anxiety became a straining nuisance. Leaving Hogwarts during the week was against code for student and staff. Of course there were a few exceptions, but he figured this had never been considered one of them.

The three snow storms over weeks had gathered a little over four feet and had been piled high on either side to show it's covered pavement walkway below. The wall reached waist height to him which with it's glazed iced surface that glint against the setting sun he slowed his steps as he approached the stoop. The area around him was an empty markless area to what he saw, but his step stopped immediately and retracted swiftly as a burning feeling erupted from under his foot.

He leaned over and quickly found the source of the power. A blood drop rest on the sidewalk and he reached his hand out, feeling for anymore and quickly found the trail. He looked around at the snow walls and found long uneven drag lines that had gone unnoticed, which hinted to weakness or imbalance. His eyes scanned the area in front of him once more, and once hitting the snow covered stairs did he see the deep red droplets leading up with the snow broken foot steps. He followed next to the trail, slowly up each stone stairs and he bit his cheek when a grouping of blood sat shining against the snow before the door. He traced his hand over the door and frowned when the aura felt weak and he scanned the deep brown surface and found the dirt and blood marks from her touch in the grains of wood.

Straightening up, he looks around. The blood was somewhat fresh, so he figured she still might have been close by and he looked for the trail, any trail past his stoop to the edges of the flat. Traveling down the stairs Severus began checking the sides of the snow, finding a break in the wall when he trailed backwards. He would follow with the tracks, pulling off the sidewalk and into the yard, he followed them in a path that lead around to the back of the flat where he stopped. Finishing the track with his eyes his face turned dark as found the steps leading to his apothecary shed.

Soundlessly, he continued on, only stepping where footsteps were already made in a silence he mastered long ago, he grit his teeth and pulled his wand when he noticed the padlock had been smashed from the latch and his eyes landed on the displacement of snow below that showed the door had been pushed opened before. It was then he leaned back on his heel and cast a spell that forced the door to fully open, flying a wave of snow before it from it's path. With wand extended, he stepped inside the doorway and found Haven hiding under the bottom shelf where for a moment he just stared down at her as she shivered from either fear or cold, he couldn't tell and didn't care.

"Always, cover your tracks." He said briskly.

He reached down and grabbed her by the jacket scruff and pulled her through the snow and in through the backdoor of the flat. He slammed the door behind them and quickly left her shivering in the kitchen. When he returned to the kitchen, he held a basic pouch of first aid and when he noticed she haven't moved an inch, he gave to her a harsh command for her not to be stupid, and to take off her soaked shoes and jackets. Leaving the pouch on the old, wooden table, he grabbed her hands checked her fingers for numbness as he wiped dirt from her road-rashed knuckles and fingers before pushing three bottles into her hand.

"Take them." He instructed before turning his heel and walking towards the living room once more.

Her voice shook as she popped open the caps. "What is it?"

"Cold medicine. " He said over his shoulder before continuing his way out, leaving her sight.

He stopped in his living room and ran his fingers through his hair anxiously. Helping people reminded him of helping cats; once helped, they tend come back often and sooner or later would find their way into your home. Taking a deep breath to regain himself out of sight, he stands up to an intimidating posture before turning on his heel, and making his way back into the kitchen and into view. He returned to see her finishing the last bottle and making a sour face before coughing.

He was ready, and took her distraction to his favor for when she looked up, she would look up straight into the tip of his wand. Her fearful eyes triggered a sick entertainment and violent arousal inside of him, and her trembling only made him grin more pronounced. His breathing slowed and thickened in this throat as she began to cower.

"Please! I'm sorry!" The voice was grotesque music in his ears, "I didn't take anything. Nothing. I promise. I was cold and dizzy and I didn't know what to do. I'll get you a new lock... please.."

He stepped closer and watched as tears begin flowing her eyes and inside him something ticked. An evil. He blinked back the eccentric and violent feeling and with a flick of his wand he watched her take a deep breath and wait for death.

 **Haven:**

When death didn't seem to come, she squinted one of her eyes open and then the other. Her body relaxed and her breath came out awkwardly as she felt her warm clothing with her skin and then quickly, with her fingers.

Dry.

Everything was dry.

She patted her shirt and pants and looked at the dry clothing that sat in a heap on the floor as Severus grinned to himself at her surprise, until she checked her hat. She immediately squeaked in pain as rip of agony slid across her head and slowly she slid the hat off exposing her forehead. In a flash that she instinctively fought against when he grabbed her arm out of the way and stepped closer her own steps moved back as her held hand fisted.

"Stop it." His voice bit angrily at her trauma as his eyes locked on the deep and infected gash that ran from her hairline, across to the left side of her forehead and dipped down past her temple.

"What is this?" He demanded, loosening his grasp as her fighting stopped, a feeling, a sense of dark magicked energy residue catching his attention which he found in her blood and on the wound.

.

When she didn't reply, his lip snarled and her knees bowed under his painfully tightening grasp.

"It was just some guys. They asked me how I paid for five nights in a row and how I got that kind of money, then they tried to take what was left." she quickly exclaimed as her mind burned under his eyes.

"Tried?" He guessed though he knew there was a lie somewhere in her claim.

She clenched her teeth in pain and looked away but before he had a chance to push the question a light buzzing went off in his pocket as his grip was taken off her wrist and shoved into his pocket. Out he pulled a small timer, his time was up and he had to get back to the school soon. Severus straightened up and looked around quickly thinking.

"Come." He instructed harshly.

He waited for her by the door, tapping his foot in impatience, his arms crossing angrily while she pulled on her dry sweaters. They quickly left the house and Severus would push her out ahead of him making the girl break out in a light jog as when she fell short of his speed, his fingertips would dig into her back.

"Severus, what are-"

In that moment, after a minute of walking, he turned around and grabbed her arm tightly, the last thing she saw was the black hole eyes of the angry man glinting dangerously as the world dissipated around them. In a flash, everything sped by them, the world gone into a speeding haze as their bodies molded and twisted along. Soon enough she felt her knees hit hard ground as her legs instantly gave away and at once as her body doubled over onto all fours, a sudden sickness bringing her to double over and vomit onto the dirt ground.

Severus waited quietly, standing over her with his eyes moving around their perimeter for the minute it took for her stomach to run out. Gripping her around the scruff of her coat when he deemed ready, he began walking her through large metal gates.

.

"Listen to me," He hissed as they approached a massive castle.

Havens steps had started to slow and the shadow clad man had slowed to a likened speed while maintaining a tension pull on her forearm as he lead her at his side. He allowed her to look around the moon lit grounds of Hogwarts and he would watch from his peripheral as she saw the castle in all it's moon casted magnificence which trumped any doubt he had about her abilities. If she couldn't the see the beauty, then she didn't have the eyes.

He tightened his jaw as he realized that fact may be more bad than good.

"Keep your head low, don't say a word." He said sharply in a low whisper, "if anyone says anything, you will not answer and let me talk, Understand?" He growled under his breath while scanning the area in front of him.

She didn't answer him and when her pull against him became too much, he stopped to look behind him, ready to insult and order. She was standing there in the moonlight and matching snow, her eyes wide, head tilted back as she stared up at the magnificent, beautiful castle.

A beauty he always seemed to take for granted until he was in the presence of someone who had never seen such a sight, he breathed out and surrendered himself, taking a moment to look up as well with the clouds of his breath hazing his vision in the cold winter air. Taking her scruff once again, he gave a tug which she followed obediently under and together they walked up the large stone stair set to the two massive doors.

He steered her through shadows and up a large front set of stairs where he would stop her, release her, and open the door a crack. After a moment, he pulled her inside and they together, with Haven held tightly at his side, they made their way quickly through the main hall. The travel across the ground was with him mostly pulling her against her awe, and he aimed her towards a set of doors that lay hidden next to the massive staircase.

"Professor Snape?"

Severus physically flinched as a young man's voice echoed through the empty hall behind them.

"Don't look." He whispered to just her as he released her sweater and spun around and put on his best demonic attitude he was known so well by, while she stood with her back turned, her eyes looking straight at the wooden door they were heading to.

It was the Weasley Head Boy. Percy. A smart boy, a good Prefect which made him a hazard to Severus and the situation.

"And, who's that, professor?" The boy asked confidently, standing true to Gryffindor ways as he rose the quill to paper.

"Who are you?" Severus hissed with hard warning.

"Professor Snape, _I_ am Head Boy, and has _Head Boy_ I am instructed to know-"

"I am _Professor_ Snape and my word out ranks yours and I say, this student is of my house and I will properly deal with _his_ punishments.

"Well that's fine Sir, but I must insist you give me his name. Professor McGonagall will want to know in the morning."

Severus took a harsh step at Percy. He was tired of this game and of the boy's stupidity.

"Go. Away." He snarled as he leaned in and the Weasley boy who finally seemed to get the point, lowered his parchment and quill.

Severus turned around and sharply grabbed Havens' shoulder and pulled her through the dungeon door, slamming it behind him for the sound to echo the sleeping school. Once enveloped in the darkness, he pushed her ahead and let go of her clothing, allowing her freedom of the chase. He watched her walk for a moment before he easily moved by her and began to lead the way down the damp hallways.

"What is this place?" She asked amazed as they stopped in front of what she could only swear was a real, moving portrait of a man dressed in heavy fur set against a ocean background. A painting that raised his eyebrow as he looked down at her.

" _This,_ is my office." He mocked, as the door sung open and he pushed her inside and passing her. As the portrait closed behind them on it's own, she turned from the sight of that, to the fast paced teacher that stepped around her and made his way towards a tall set of selves that he took a small collection of vials from.

She narrowed her eyes at his sudden harshness and took an uneasy step back away as he turned to her. She didn't like the way he spoke to her, she didn't like the way his steps mimicked that of violent angry men. She didn't like how the stone walls that surrounded her brought her back to cells, to sewers, to work houses.

Feeling her energy he kept his back to her and allowed his head to tilt forward and for himself to give a sigh. He turned to face her with an expression cold as stone and with his robes swinging in front of his leg, giving him a haunting appearance in the flickering candle lights against flickering the stone walls of the teachers office.

.

"This," He began in a cold and quiet voice, "is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is the school you should have been sent to and this is where I work."

Hey eyes widening in excitement, "You mean there are others? Like me?"

" _Similar,_ to you." He said curtly taking up stride towards her.

"Take your hat off." He instructed changing the topic and dapping a potion onto a rag as she carefully lifted the beani off and from over the wound.

"Sit." He stiffly directed her to a chair and once again she followed his order without realizing why.

From there he placed himself slightly behind her, and landed three fingers on her forehead before slowly tilting her head back and her eyes to slide up to him.

He never looked at her directly in the eye and eventually as he worked she would be able to adjust her neck to look around that magical office. She looked at the full book shelves that mimicked the overcrowding organization of those at his home as he brought up the rag and dabbed not so gently against the wound. She winced to the pain pushing a breath out sharply through her teeth as her neck flinched away from him and the painful sizzle.

She quickly found his fingers tightening around her chin and forcing her back to him.

"Stop it!" He ordered as sharp as the pain that ran across her forehead. "This is helping you more than harming you. Enough complaining."

He settled back into silence and and continued dabbing various potions on her forehead before applying four butterfly stitches as she looked at darkened wooden furniture to the black leather couch which sat on a deep snake printed, green and silver rug next to a tall bookshelf and across from the large teacher's desk.

Haven had stiffened her body and tried her best to control her flinching and her noises throughout as she tried focusing on the room around her. She was hiding it better now for, for the remainder of the healing session he said nothing more until he was finished.

" _I_ will take these off. Understood?" He completed, gesturing to the stitches as he began cleaning the desk top at their side.

She nodded and he moved away as Haven dropped her hip against the desk, her weight leaning against edge as he looked her over and crossed his arms in front of him.

From here, he didn't know what to do. He needed sleep so apparating back was not an option and he couldn't tell anyone he brought her here and tomorrow the halls would again be filled with students and ghosts alike. Turning away from her, for his anger was not placed on her, he swallowed the heat rising in his stomach.

His kindness was already interrupting his life, he thought to himself angrily, gritting his teeth and regretting ever helping in the first place.

Turning back to her, he took a few steps before turning to face her, "I have to teach tomorrow, so you are staying the night here."

By _here,_ he meant the couch he was currently pointing to and she looked behind her and nodded before sitting down in her assigned spot

"I will take you back tomorrow night. Goodnight." His voice held no emotions outside a slight irritation and before anything further could be said, he turned and sharply started to his bedroom.

"But, I have questions." her voice did not stop him, only slow the turn of the bedroom door handle.

"And I do not have answers."

..

Haven slept well and warm and slept deeply until a slamming door woke her up. She sat up into echoing silence and a smell directed her over to the breakfast sitting on the desk along with a note. She slowly read the words that he clearly printed out for her to understand as he knew she was never educated in script.

In a way she was insulted. In another she was thankful.

He had written down his class schedule with his teaching times. He wrote for her to entertain herself without taking anything and that if he could, he would check up on her. He wrote that tonight he would bring her back and compensate pay for the hours lost. He also told her, under no circumstances that she was to leave the room or answer the door for anyone.

Looking around for something to do, she would eventually find his lavatory after walking through his ancient looking, beautifully furnished bedroom set colored in deep greens and blacks with outlines of glittering silver where she would wash up her face for the morning. Back out in the office, she would pull a book from the office shelf after many minutes of binding reading and sat herself on the couch.

She didn't look at the pages right away, instead she looked around at the candle lit room with no touch of modern anything. Dressed in all the wonder of Victorian architecture she was sitting in a papalce only known from books. She was dreaming. She had to be... Look at this place..

It was a few slow hours later, when her eyes turned to the pages of colored potions, creatures and diagrams, to the alerting sound of a small tapping on the door.

Her heart skipped a beat as she looked around the office unsure of how to respond and thinking it be best to hide, but the door clicked open anyway and her eyes widened as an elderly looking man with a long white bread and Merlin style robes stepped into the room. He was closely followed by a stiff faced Minerva McGonagall, who closed the portrait quietly behind her while keeping familiar eyes on Haven from behind the magical looking man.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," The old man began in a calm, fatherly tone, bringing her belly to churn uncomfortably as she watched the door shut without Severus. "It's a pleasure to have you here. My name, is Albus Dumbledore and I am Headmaster of this school."

He smiled gently, unfazed by the hard scowl she gave back to him as in silence, Haven started to panic as her inner walls climbed higher and higher as the room seemed to shrink around her. She wanted to leave, she wanted Severus to make these people go away. _She_ wanted to make these people go away. Her legs started twitching and her hand closed into fists as she thought of her hidden clipped knife.

Albus's eyes twinkled and while still looking at Haven, as if he knew, he said aloud in a chipper voice, "Minerva, could you wait outside, please."

McGonagall, the woman Kayne recognized from that night, turned to face the headmaster with eyes widened and a stiffness setting into her posture. "Headmaster I, -"

"Please, Minerva." The old man's voice now laced with a seriousness.

Minerva looked at Haven and sighed, shaking her head as she turned towards the door and left, shutting it softly behind her.

"Dreams are a beautiful thing," the supposed headmaster sighed looking around the office once they were alone, "but one must not become lost in that world."

"This world is made of dreams."

He gave a meant chuckle as he pulled over a wooden chair and placed himself in the middle of the room.

Haven remained sitting on the couch with the book on her lap though she watched herself running to and out the door. She bit her lip as she returned her gaze at the elderly man that sat before her and slipped the book off her lab, her fingers brushing the metal of the back pocket kept knife.

"Did you know," He asked over his glasses. "That if one becomes lost in dreams and fantasy for too long, they may actually lose themselves?".

"Than what is this?" She thought of hospitals and asylums.

She had seen what drugs did to people. She had seen the end result of who people became and what they did. Insanity was a part of her life, a part which she became numb to quickly.

"What is your name?" Albus asked gently as Haven began to rise.

"Haven."

Albus leaned back in the chair and gave a slow nod as Haven stepped from in front of the couch.

"Do you dream of haven's often, Jessica?"

Havens throat dried as panic set in. She felt her body pulse and their hair on her neck and arms rise with a warm static feeling. As overload set in, her ears became to sensitive to any noise and her eyes scanned the room for any movement as she saw everything. With no other option but to leave, she began her longest walk against the back wall of the office, her shoulder staying close to the wall, her eyes holding on the elderly man she began her way cautiously to the door.

"I'm going to leave now." She informed in a hard, voice.

She could beat him no problem so she wasn't afraid, she was cautious. She knew the old man couldn't protect himself from her knife or even a push, he had no fight against her staggering age benefits but there was magic she knew no limit of. Looking towards the door, she wouldn't see the headmaster's face drop to one of sadness for the child.

He saw why Severus was drawn to her now.

So much like what he used to be, she was now; a delicate reminder of past pain.

By now, she had slipped around a table and was slowly but confidently moving around him as he sat in the center of the room, each keeping eye contact with the other.

"What a life you must lead to make one so young as yourself, fear so many things." He replied quietly dropping his gaze from her.

She froze to his words that felt intrusive to her being, and she pushed the drawn knife tightly against her outer thigh, out of view.

"My dear, I assure you, I am not here to harm. I wish only to help you."

"You can't help me!" Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the man.

"But, Severus can?"

Haven's voice faulted as did her next step as a twinkle appeared in the Headmasters eyes. He was right, she knew nothing about the man but still he was who she wanted then. Albus smiled understandingly and Haven loosened her grip and relaxed her breathing slightly.

"How do you know him?" She mumbled and the man gave a hearty chuckle.

"I hired him." He sighed, "And I taught him."

They stared in silence at each other. The wizard slowly lifting to his feet, calmly dropping his hands to his sides, on his face he wears a warm small smile one that is genuine. His calm patients was allowing her all the time she needed to speak first for the child that moved tense and as if she was a frightened animal.

She jumped when the portrait door swung open and Severus walked into view. The teacher froze in mind-stride as his eyes darted back and forth between the smiling Headmaster and the strike ready, Haven.

"Headmaster I-"

"Why Severus, I'm slightly insulted you did not introduce me to your young guest."

"I'm slightly insulted you let yourself into my office." Severus quipped, but quickly dropped his gaze as the Headmaster gave a warning look.

By now, Minerva had slipped back in before the portrait closed behind him and she stood against the wall behind the Potions Master, wearing a small, strict, cocky smile. Dumbledore gave a soft smile of his own and his eye's twinkled at his youngest colleague.

"It was medical, Headmaster.." Severus explained quietly from the corner of his mouth as he watched the two before him in a side cast gaze.

"I see that Severus," the Headmaster said, inspecting Haven's closed wound and stitches from afar. "But I suppose my question lands on, why she looks so unfamiliar. Or, why she is not in class."

Severus fumbled his next words and quickly returned to silence as the shrinking/student feeling rose significantly within himself. The room stood in silence as Albus waited for an answer.

Minerva figured she could do the friendly thing and help the man out, but after their earlier argument a feeling of satisfaction instead rose as she decided against it. She gave him a smirk as he looked behind at her for help.

"Minerva, do you know anything about this?" Albus asked.

Severus wasn't asking for help, she should have known better. He was pushing the weight around to get attention off himself and Minerva glared daggers at him as he succeed.

"No, Headmaster. I know nothing about Severus secretly bringing a young girl into the castle."

Her wording made the man snarl and she greeted his anger with a wider smirk.

Albus pushed further, "What about the child herself?"

It was Severus's turn to grin as Minerva faulted and the Headmaster turned to his Deputy Headmistress.

"Well.. Yes Albus. I know _of_ the child, but only had the pleasure of meeting her once, when _Severus_ brought her to my door."

The weight was pushed back and forth like a see-saw in a childish blame-game. Still, Albus watched entertained as the two teachers continued their horn locking behavior. He allowed a few moments to pass before turning back to Haven who had by now slithered close to the door, while trying to look small against the shadowing bookshelf.

His gentle voice would silence the pair, "What house are you in, Haven?"

Haven's eye's went to Snape who immediately looked away from her. A sinking, abandoned feeling ripped through her chest as she tightened her grip on the was on her own now. There was only so far Severus was obviously willing to protect, and unfortunately that time had been met in the space between him and the headmaster.. A sudden vision of her dream with Tom Riddle flashed through her mind and she focused on the green printed name on the silver badge.

"Slytherin." She replied, and all eyes suddenly focused on her, forcing her back a step and into the bookshelf. Her thumb pad flicked over the top of her blade which now lowered into view as Dumbledore looked at both of the confused looking teachers.

"Severus, you looked shocked. Why is that?"

Haven's eyes widened as she realized whatever she said related to Snape, which now forced him further into the situation.

"Severus, my boy. I tell you as a trusted friend of many years along with the fact, I am your superior. Tell me what's going on."

Severus looked down defeated and after a moment met eyes with the old man. He hated that he could never maintain posture around the old man no matter the years known. Just as he did as a child, Severus broke under the headmasters bidding.

"She never got her letter." he admit quietly between teeth.

The intentions Snape had now, was to be as short as possible and finish the conversation as quickly as possible, but the attempt always seemed to fail with a man like Albus Dumbledore.

"And you- ?" Dumbledore promoted.

"Found her." Severus finished, and Albus raised his eyebrows before preparing his next question.

"She more than just missed, Headmaster," Minerva interjected, stepping closer behind Snape's shoulder.

"Severus has found an _unmarked_ and missed witch."

The wizard stood for a moment, looking at the three before him before continuing.

"And your sure -"

"Yes headmaster." Severus nodded.

"How about Leg-"

"Advanced." It was not everyday that Severus would interrupt the Headmaster, but there were things that could not be said in front of Haven.

"And your theory?" The headmaster continued in silent understanding.

"So far proven."

Albus eyed Haven carefully before turning back to the two staff members.

"Does she have family?"

"No." Haven's voice bit and the Headmaster turned to her.

"She, um." Severus started dully trying to find the correct words. "doesn't like it when you talk of her like she's not here." The repeated words slipped over Snape's tongue as if on a script and the headmaster gave an amused look.

"Well then, my sincerest of apologies, my dear." He nodded his head and slightly bowed to Haven.

"I want to go home." She demanded.

"My dear. It's very cold out and I would think you would-"

She moved her knife hand up, catching the blade in the candle light for all to see, a move rewarded with the rising of the headmasters own wooden weapon. To Haven, in all her rushing anxiety, she felt the room seem to slow as the hair rose on the back of her neck and a static ringing pierced through her ears,

"I want to go, home!" She commanded again.

"Where _is_ your home?" Albus asked with a wave of his wand as she took another step closer to the door that she now stood only feet in front of her.

Haven faulted on the question and felt her vision pulled back to normal and her eyes open from it's tunnel vision. Her hearing tuned to the heavy silence of her heart beat and the remaining static that rang dully in her ears quieted quickly.

"Very interesting," Dumbledore muttered, allowing his wand to drop and his eyes to travel up and down Haven, finally landing on the knife.

"Okay." He gave up, "I expect Severus would be alright with escorting you out?" He extended his look to the Potions Master who took steps forward and stopped in front of the young girl. He gently pinched her wound together, and slowly lifted the butterfly stitches, allowing his fingers to loosen completely when the skin held and did not rip open. From there, he took the other three off before turning heel and stepping to the exit as her once infected wound now sat a dull pink and clean.

"Come on, now." His voice was sharp when he stalled following.

 **Severus:**

Their feet echoed as they made their way through the empty dungeon hallway. Everyone was at dinner as planned and Severus shoved his hands in his pockets grumbling about various irritating things as they walked. They picked up speed through the main hallway and continued wordlessly out through the front doors and onto the property. They walked in silence over the grounds and through the large metal gates which is where Severus turned around sharply. Haven, who had been watching him walk , was there to stop when others and once herself, would walk straight into him.. He stood for a moment glaring darkly at her and his accomplished lessons.

"Where are we going?" He asked shortly.

Haven looked down and dug in the ground with her foot. He waited silently, looking around annoyed.

"I don't know..." Her voice trailed and Severus gave an irate sigh before grabbing her arm and once again her world dissolved into a nauseating rollercoaster.

When they landed, her stomach held and he looked down at her as she got to her feet. They stood at the train platform of Spinners End, she turned to look up at his hallowing glare. Without a word he extended an envelope which she quietly took. It was heavier than normal and Haven examined the outside before shoving it in her pocket.

"Thank you."

An audible pop answered her and she raised her head and sighed as she looked around the empty platform. The wind blew the cold winter air over her cheek and she settled herself on the bench before pulling the envelope from her pocket to examine the contents..

 **..**

It had been a few days since then, and Severus sat quietly looking through potions texts in his private office at Hogwarts. He wrote down an ingredients list of things he was going to buy and gathered all his to do lists for the week. His days would continue as normal and he locked the thoughts of Haven away without a problem.

One night within his week, when wall clock chimed 11pm, his mind and life was immediately halted as his forearm erupted into pain, forcing the man to grimace. Without word or misstep, Severus would quickly change his clothes and grab a crystal bottle of expensive whisky and a shot glass he kept tucked away behind his desk, which would be placed on the table by the couch in front of the fireplace for his return. Looking around his office a final time, with a sigh, he held a special medallion and apparated from the room.

..

Severus found himself in an empty hallway of Malfoy Manor and quickly took stride through the large meeting hall doors and slid into a seat next to Lucius who sat next to his wife. The two exchanged stern looks before the soft hissing of Nagini echoed the room into complete silence.

The heads of many, all who sat around the table, immediately bent as the Dark Lord entered the darkened, otherwise empty hall.

"Ahh. It's ssso nice to see you all again." The false happy tone made Severus sick.

"I have the most wonderful of newssss. It seems as though a certain magic hasss... _reappeared_... in the muggle world. A very sssspecial brand of magic at that."

Snape raised his head to meet the Dark Lord's twisted face and almost physically shuddered as his eyes met that of the already hungry glare of Voldemort. The glare would then switch off Severus and moved onto to the man who sat beside him, and the Dark Lord would quickly place himself between the two men resting a hand on either shoulder.

"It seemsss, my Jesssssica has reappeared."

"Jessica?" Lucius asked raising his eyebrows.

The Dark Lord, tangled his fingers in the man's long blond hair before yanking his head back harshly and placing his wand on the mans throat.

"Yes. The one you let get away."

Voldemort released Lucius hair and dragged his wand over the mans throat leaving a bloody, dripping slit before placing his hand heavily on Snape's stiff shoulder.

"Yessssss, my two of many most accomplished of followers. The key you lossst so go long ago hasss surfaced once again."

"My lord -" Lucius began, his hands remaining on the table and off his bleeding wound.

Voldemort's fingers struck down and wrapped around Severus's adams apple and tightened onto sensitive pressure points forcing the man out of the chair and onto his knees. Lucius stopped speaking immediately and watched Severus gasp.

"I taste her magic on you, Severus." Voldemort spoke with his face inches from the cheek of the just as pale man.

Severus's choked out nothing but gasping air when the heavy body of Nagini slid over the back of his legs, her hiss ringing just out of his peripherals.

The hand was taken back and quickly replaced by the Cruciatus curse and Severus felt his spine snap back and his mind and muscles scream as though they were ripping apart. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth tightly waiting for it to be over, withholding a scream that broke inside his chest. After an excruciating minute the spell was broken and his body collapsed limply on the floor and he lay gasping his first breath in minutes.

The Dark Lord bent over the man and whispered softly into his ear, "Where is she?"

"My.." Severus fought unconsciousness as he took burning breaths. "my lord, I don't know wh-"

"Where is she!" He yelled now, which made the room flinch as his toe made contact across Severus's cheek bone.

"She must have brushed-" Severus coughed out once he landed on his back before another sharp curse stuck him into agonizing silence.

His failure had been enough for the Dark Lord and he made his disappointment obvious by casting thorny vines from the wooden floor that wrapped around Severus's body, holding him to the ground. The man clenched his teeth once more as the vines tightened and thrones broke deeply into his skin.

At this point, Lucius looked away from his friend and onto his hands and table.

"Find her."

The creature flicked his wand and once again Severus's body tensed under the Cruciatus curse, his strain and flinching only digging the thorns deeper and after they reached their max, the pressure stopped and Severus's body fell limp once more. The Dark Lord gave a sickening smile before flicking his wand once more for good measure.

For the first time that night, Severus gave an audible cry as the thrones began to drag themselves though his skin as they retreated into the floor. The Dark Lord showed his feeling of accomplishment by standing up straight and walking away with a low laugh, leaving the man gasping and bleeding as he sat himself in the head chair.

"Severus my pet, It's quite rude to bleed out on someone else's floor, you should get back to your seat. Now."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. Worlds Collide

****Chapter 6: Worlds Collide****

* * *

 **Like I promised, we are time jumping a few years to "Adultish" Haven. The end of Harry Potters fourth year.**

 **Let me know what you think!**

* * *

 **Worlds Collide**

The clock chimed 9PM and Severus felt the the hair on the back of his neck stand with the ring of the chime and he twitched his foot in irritation attempting to alleave some of his building tensions.

He was sitting stiffly in one of Minerva's leather armchairs that sat in her private office of Hogwarts, and he sat staring blankly into the crackling fire ahead of him. His hearing perked and centered on the soft sound of fine China that clinked together and echoed from the room over along with a slow hiss from the kettle.

 _Ten steps from the stove to the living room, seven steps from the living room, to me._

He tensed his body as he counted her closing-in steps.

"Severus?" Minerva asked for his attention before appearing back in the living room as she held a cup in one hand while the other floated over her shoulder. He raised his eyes and sarcastically cocked his eyebrow in her direction as he turned his neck to look at her.

Minerva stayed silent and rounded behind him, taking her seat in the armchair beside his. She placed his cup of tea on the small table before them and settled back into her chair, watching the firelight lick against Severus's death-like exterior. His head was tilted forward and his hair glinted in the light, casting dancing shadows over his now masked expression. She noted the way he looked at his tea and how as his thumb run over each finger cracking each knuckle slowly from its resting position on the chairs armrest.

"I'm not going to poison you." She stated simply, leaning back and sipping from her own cup.

 _Stupid_. He hissed at himself in his mind, allowing his posture to relax but would continue to ignore the tea.

"Why am I here?" Severus asked stiffly instead, moving the conversation along.

"It's about Jessica."

"Haven." His voice was an aggressive bite which received a sigh from the older witch.

He knew Minerva had gone numb to his aggression years ago and he tilted his head further from her staring eyes as she chose not to respond right away.

"Severus, with all due respect my friend, do _you_ even know what you're doing anymore?"

He smirked darkly, "Don't I always."

"Severus.." Minerva warned in return.

He casually adjusted his position in the arm chair and extended his leg until a popping noise came from his knee. Tilting his head back slightly, he showed his dark smirk that traced his mouth when he received a genuine concerned look from the women, which only lasted a moment.

"Severus Snape. You stop right now!"

His smirk dropped and she quickly continued before he could speak.

"I am sick of this! We are alone Severus! After everything we've been through and everything

I've done, one would think you would finally relax!"

Severus pulled his leg in and darkened his glare.

"One could only wish."

His voice was emotionless and Minerva quickly dropped her attack.

"You're impossible." She said softening her tone and looking away.

"Just difficult," he said quietly before rising to his feet and pacing a few steps, placing his back to her.

His stiffening features foretold a rareness that would come with his next move something that she saw as well as she felt.

"I finally don't know what to do, and -" His voice paused as his words caught in his throat and refused to properly arrange.

"Severus?" she prompted him further after a quiet moment.

"-and, I think I messed up rather big this time."

* * *

It had been many winters since Severus first brought the girl to the door of Minerva McGonagall, and as the seasons changed and snow melted, a feeling of renewal and rebirth would claim the land one again. Harry Potter had since become a student and was currently riding out his fourth year of school. The death of Cedric was still a fresh wound on the TriWizard Tournament, the school was quiet as it's year closed up. The school was all talk about the possible return of the Dark Lord, while mourning the death of their classmate while worrying about their future.

Haven was on her way to her 18th birthday and had changed from the impulsive, fearful child Minerva had met, into a hard and rebellious soul that rarely spoke to anyone outside the darkened, protective professor. Not having restrictions in her younger years did not sit favorably for her now. She pushed hard against any form of authority and found herself in panic within four walls for any long extent of time. She sized up well with the boys, wearing her womanhood with pride and soon enough she was feared just as greatly as highest thieves. She was a violent young women of the streets now, who wore her black hair mid-bicep length and shaved bald on the side. Thin red streaks ran randomly through her hair, breaking up the darkness in a peacocking way. Her beautiful grey eyes had shifted to a continuous storm with lightning that would flash a silence into unworthy foes. Even as a child, Haven was years ahead of her age and her homeless life in London only shape her to the hardest truths of the world and it's evil.

Over the years, Severus did not get rid of Haven as he planned, but instead they would continue like they had that first day. He would slip her an envelope under the doormat the times he could get away, and she would leave him a stone she warmed with her hands before leaving it in it's place. There had come a point, against his intuition and heart, where he had given her a key and during the summer and coldest of nights, she would come around to escape the elements.

As far as Severus could tell, which with one as analytical as him was hard to trick, she had never taken a thing.

That night and the few beyond, when they would both find each other at the flat, when her interest perked he would tutor her in the privacy of his home in the same fashion she called for every time. She would choose the topic and choose the book and soon would come asking questions and he would answer them. Simple. Other, more active days when she wouldn't stop walking or talking to him, he would teach her potions, chess, cooking; and in time he found himself learning things from her.

Severus had also taught her other things. Special things that could only be taught under the cloak of night. He enticed her mind and lured out magic from her fingertips then teach her how to control it. Her magic was different a training he had never found much research on before, for her training was not based on wand experience but off of building the magic from the core of her inside.

Weighing in as one of his largest mistakes, he found her magic was impulsive and driven by emotion that demanded control of both mind and body. Severus soon came to realize that a hormonal, female teenager such as Haven, with all her broken restrictions, should not have been given such violent, unrestricted abilities and very early on he corrected the problem himself.

The first time Haven showed up at his doorstep grinning with blood stained hands and magic sparking from her skin, was the first time he ever laid a hand of pure violence on the girl.

He had grabbed her by the arm and attempted to throw her across the room. He would place himself in a dueling stance with his wand exposed, which would normally silence her, but not this time. She acted quickly now and as she stumbled, she caught his wrist upon his release and pulled him toward her and off balance. A quick foot placement and a sharp twist of Havens arm and he was freed and she fell hitting her back against the floor.

Admittedly, he lost his temper against her fight, a blacking out when the corner of her view caught her leg as it pulled in and struck out to what would be devastating kick to the side of his knee with the heel of her boot. In one fluid movement, Severus caught her leg with both hands and with malicious eye contact, he sharply spun her ankle to the side, casting a sickening smile as he heard disconnecting bones erupt with a echoing snap. Her body moved with her breaking ankle and now on her belly, she grabbed towards her back pocket to retrieve her trusty knife as she let out a cry of pain.

To finish her, he pinned her under his knee by her wrist to spine, before casting a magic spell that collided painfully with her fresh broken ankle forcing her to cry out and for her consciousness to wave. In her shock he grabbed her free arm and twisted it behind her back in a painful arm lock before leaning over her and digging his thumb and index fingers into the pressure points on either the sides of her neck, making her bend with his chosen direction.

"You give too much away lass. Remember, I see through sober eyes."

He meant the majority of her fights, and the fact they consisted of drucken and high men while he was sober and scared for the worst. He grinned to himself as she attempted for a backwards head butt, and he quickly dug his fingers further into the sides of her neck forcing another cry.

"Keep trying, love," A darkness set into his words that would lessen the tightness of her neck as she realized who he was becoming..

Who he was.

He applied all of his weight on her now, and grinned a smile upon hearing her spine slowly cracking and in her breath begin to wheeze.

"Our world is that of secrets." His voice cooed near her ear as he pushed her closer and closer to suffocation, "You are no Misah, it is not you who is to expose us and you will keep the secrets of the world that I chose to bring you into. As your teacher, you will grant me that."

Severus voice was a pure hiss now, a quiet whisper that shook the bones as he watched her wiggling and gasping slowly die off and waited until she slipped into sweet unconsciousness before pulling himself away. Lifting his fingers from either side of her neck she gently got off of her limp body.

Breaking a female minor's ankle, attempting to break her spine and wrist and then knocking her out on the carpet of his home, may not have been Severus's proudest moment. But, it shaped the girl for life. There was reason behind what he had to do. She held no restrictions and letting her think he was weaker, was not going to be tolerated. He had won dominance after that, a primal feeling under the coursing magic and after a few smaller attempts to fight him, she finally submitted to his will all before turning eighteen.

He always became violent second and struck painfully when he did. His other life allowed for him to shut off to emotions and torture indiscriminately, an art he had well trained Haven's fear of, something she knew not even the full extent of, held her in place when it came to his word.

Haven's magic made her an animal, her traceless self made her seem invincible and he treated her testing as he would a snarling wolf. To remain a trusted "alpha", even among humans was the only way to keep control of her now.

Haven would go on to push and fight with others, but in quick time she fell silent and adjusted into unending loyalty and obedience to her strange, strict, teacher.

* * *

 **Minerva McGonagall:**

She quickly found him when she arrived to Grimmauld Place. He was sitting at the kitchen table, seemingly doodling and looking quite bored. The house lay close to empty as everyone including Sirius had left for the time being, she wasn't 100% sure why he was even there.

"How are you, Professor?" She said as jollily as she would to the man as she entered the kitchen.

The Potions Professor looked up and gave her a questioning look to her preppyness, "Grand." He replied dully, looking back to the parchment and applying a few strokes to the paper.

"Good to hear." Minerva leaned over the paper and paused as she looked at a beautifully inked crow in rising flight from a tree branch.

" Severus, that's.. marvalous." She said trying to find a word that didn't make her sound like a complimenting teacher to the man, as she slid the pad from under his fingers to examine the detail of the inked lifting crow.

"What do you want, Minerva?" He asked dropping his hand to the table, watching her look over his sketch.

"I was wondering if we could talk sometime?" Minerva said returning to the point and handing the

man back his drawing.

"We're talking now."

"I meant about, Jessi-"

"Haven."

Minerva furrowed her brow and looked at the man who sat in front of her who looked at the crow he drew.

"Why do you encourage it, Severus?" The women asked quietly.

"Each to their own." He responded dully, dipping the quill in the well.

An anger began to spike inside the elderly witch.

"And what does that mean?" she asked sparsely.

"It means, if I humor her, she'll humor me, and I can go on being something besides a bother to her."

"And what do you choose to be?" Minerva said crossing her arms.

Severus didn't respond but instead stood to his feet and quietly side stepped around the women on his way out of the kitchen.

Minerva quickly stood and turned to face her old student, "Do you even see what you're doing to her, Severus?"

Her question stopped him in his tracks and he turned around slowly raising his eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Look at what you're doing to her, Severus."

"What am I doing to her, Minerva...?" he asked dangerously.

"You don't understand Severus. She was a child! A child that needed a home with nourishment and love or -"

"Or, she would end up like me." Severus finished dryly and Minerva gave an irritated glare.

"No, Minerva, clearly _you_ don't understand. Kids like her, They don't stand a chance... I didn't make her hard nor did I make her cold, the world did all of that."

"You would know." Minerva spat.

"What do you want me to do, Minerva? " He took a step towards her, "Invite her into my home and become the loving father everyone forgot I could be?!" Severus voice was harsh and raising.

"Well, that sounds be better than forcing her to the streets!"

Something in him broke and so did his temper. "Don't you understand, Minerva? She isn't forced. It's her own goddamn, choice! I could go on, about times I pushed her to stay when the rain fell or the temperature dipped. It's all her choice and always has been."

"What if the Dark Lord finds-"

Minerva stopped as Severus bit his cheek and looked away. It was a thought he tried very hard not to lull over.

"I can't make her do anything Minerva," Severus sighed defeated. "Unlike you and Albus, my emotional detachment might be the only reason she hasn't run off yet."

"Unlike Albus and I, you can make her see." Minerva explained gently, trying to coax Severus out from behind his walls.

After a moment of thought and a glance around the empty room from the man, she seemed to have succeed.

"What are you expecting me to make her see, Minerva?" he asked blankly, staring off to the side.

"That magic can be used for more than just getting rid of pain."

* * *

 **Severus:**

Severus walked down his street slowly. School had ended and he was ready for the summer

break away from the brats and loud noises and chaos. Suddenly, he caught the scent of black magic in the cloudy, rainy air and slowly picked up the pace while darting his eyes around the empty street. At his flat, he quickly stepped up the stairs and uttered passwords.

"Seeverrrusss" The purr of Bellatrix sang from behind him, freezing his movements.

He looked up either side of the street before resting on Bellatrix, who stood at the bottom of the stairs, a smile on her face.

"Hello Bella."

She smiled a toothy smile.

"You've been a very, bad boy, Severus." She cooed stepping up the stairs, sliding her hips side to sides.

"I'm not doing this now." He spat, turning around to open the door.

Her hand landed on his shoulder and he allowed her to turn him back to her. She slid her fingers over his chest and his lip curled angrily when she stepped into his personal space.

"Bella -"

Bellatrix rested her other hand on the threshold and held tightly between her fingers, sat the white envelope from under the matt.

"What's wrong, _Graverobber_?" She teased, leaning against him slightly while tapping the paper against the wood.

"Don't call me that." He growled as Bellatrix leaned heavily against him her fingers gripping his coat.

She gave a laugh and narrowed her eyes at him, "Trying to bury the past now are we _?"_ and Severus snapped his fingers around her throat silencing her.

"Thank you for picking up my mail." He hissed with his mouth inches from hers as he plucked the envelope from her loosening fingers before turning around and slamming the front door in her face.

* * *

 **Severus Snape**

"Severus.. After what Minerva has brought me and what Remus has said, I have agree with them." Albus carefully said as the entire Order sat silently around him waiting for his response.

"And what does that mean?" His eyes flashing warning, his glare resting on Albus.

Severus swallowed hard as he knew what he was about to be told as Albus leaned over the table and looked straight at his young potions master, "Severus Snape-" He started sternly, watching the man fall back against his seat, crossing his arms irritably his eyes flashing. "You came to me years ago promising me-"

"Fine. I'll do my best." His voice was short and his voice was lined with controlled anger.

"Thank you." Albus said before dismissing the man early.


	7. To Sip Whiskey Like Water

****Chapter 7: To Sip Whiskey Like Water****

* * *

 **Hello! Welcome back. Last chapter was jumpy a tad, but I promise we are back to normal. Thanks very much for returning and I hope you will take some time to help better the story. Give me a nice R &R and I'll give you house points or something... Anyway. Please enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 _When they landed, her stomach held and he looked down at her as she got to her feet. They stood at the train platform of Spinners End, she turned to look up at his hallowing glare. Without a word he extended an envelope which she quietly took. It was heavier than normal and Haven examined the outside before shoving it in her pocket._

 _"Thank you."_

 _An audible pop answered her and she raised her head and sighed as she looked around the empty platform. The wind blew the cold winter air over her cheek and she settled herself on the bench before pulling the envelope from her pocket to examine the contents.._

 _ ****End FlashBack****_

* * *

 **To Sip Whiskey Like Water**

 **Haven:**

It had been a few years time since that day where Severus handed her that envelope. She was turning eighteen somewhere within the next month and found herself that day stepping off the train and leering at the old swinging sign on the decrepit platform before looking behind her at the deepening black clouds. There was said to be a hurricane of sorts approaching and Haven could feel it racing through her veins. Storms woke her mind up and swirled in her soul. She was stronger, more agile and more alert as the approaching storm whispered dark lullabies into her brain and clouded her eyes to magic. She loved the way her skin sparked and how the striking lightning only fueled her set anger further.

Although her powers were great, she could not escape sickness and cold and knew this well. She had been kicked from the workhouse earlier that week after a bad incident, and after years of refusing foster care, the government gave her up to the streets she longed to be in anyway.

She made her way up the empty side walk and stalled at the at the corner of his street and closed her eyes to absorb the world around her. She sensed for life, for magic and evil, and when nothing came to her attention, she slowed her steps and slipped up the stairs of Severus's flat. She knocked on the front door and when no response was heard, she turned and quietly walked back down the stairs and turned the corner at the end of the street. She pulled behind the layer of houses and skillfully jumped each back fence and quickly ran each private lawn

After multiple successful vaults, she landed heavily in a bush and swore angrily, crawling pathetically out of it's branches. She stood to her feet in the backyard of Severus Snape's flat and she approached the rear of the house while slipping the tattered and stained envelope from her pocket. That day on the platform after Snape had disappeared, she had opened the envelope and extracted its contents. There was money like always, but a small, cold metal key shined for her attention. With the key and the money he had also encased a note. A note of unbreakable rules bound by a black silk ribbon that later became the tie at the end of the key.

In his note, he told her the key was for emergencies only and he gave a strict list of what constituted as an emergency. She always had to check the area before approaching his home and had to always check the front door first. She could also never leave the assigned room she was given to use, which luckly, included a private basic bathroom and shower she was to keep clean. All this was a promise. A promise that meant the end of their friendship and his promise to make sure she would never remember him or her own magic. It was also the one of the only promises Haven would ever hold dear.

She took out the ribbon from the envelope and looked at the house. In her mind's eye, she remembered the first time she saw its twin as it waved in the wind, stuck under the window of the second floor guest bedroom. She turned around and skillfully climbed the lonesome tree and scooted across the thick branch. She leaned over and slipped the key in the lock that kept the window closed and with a moment of struggle and almost falling out of the tree, she slid the window open enough to fall inside the bedroom with a loud swear.

* * *

 **Severus:**

It was late when Severus found himself half stumbling up the stairs to his door. It had been a heavy night of drinking in private VIP rooms with "friends", and he had drank himself near stupid off of Lucius's willing tab. He leaned his burning forehead against the cold, damp door and held back vomit as the world spun around him. He took a moment and he allowed the light falling rain to land on the back of his neck and cool him through his robes. He felt himself smile and chuckle at nothing in particular before pulling himself together and standing upright. It was starting to rain heavily and thunder crashed across the sky as a deathly chill struck to Severus's skin.

A fuzzy feeling sparked under his hand when he grasped the door handle and he quickly pulled back and examined the source. With a physical step back, Severus turned his eyes to look in either window as he ran his hand over the door. Slipping his wand from his sleeve, he unlocked and pushed the door open before stepping inside his dark home with a deep breath in.

In the wake of what sensed like company, he was attempting to regain sobriety the best he could and quickly realized he was more drunk than he could control. He pulled his mind together the best he could and sensed for the source of the energy and traced it up the stairs. As he blindly followed the trail, allowing his magic to lead, one misplaced step caught his foot against a small pile of books as he crossed the living room, knocking them over and stumbling him slightly.

He bit his knuckle in silent anger and cursed himself off for being a stupid drunk before pulling his wand to a fighting position as he began his slow ascent up the stairs. Once at the top, his eyes narrowed on a flickering light from under the guest door and he gave a frown when the wood held an absence of energy. His breath came easier as his suspects lessened and he muttered the spell for the lock and slowly pushed open the bedroom door.

Severus took steps through the threshold and saw Haven laying on her stomach on the bed set up and she looked up and gave him a sly and cocky smile. His eye's moved from the girl, to the cracked opened window and around the room he rarely entered anymore.

Over the years, the soul of Haven somehow overtook the bedroom. First, she had put up posters of muggle bands and actors and pictures she found and wanted to keep. When he did not reject it, he quickly found himself helping moving in a few accepted furniture pieces she had found around Spinners End. She had told him she was building a happy place. A better place. A place to remind herself of a warm feeling that she had only experienced as a very young child. A space she built in beautiful contrast of her mind and reflection of her soul.

He told her not to get attached.

As Haven grew up so did her taste, she painted the walls as she wished like a canvas. Dark, psychedelic portraits on the walls and ceiling. Pictures that showed one image to the sun, and a hidden picture under the cloak of darkness. She hung colored string lights, wind chimes and plants from the ceiling and the closet door was always open and a zebra stripe blanket hung in it's place. In her own space, she had built herself a fort within the small space. One that held many pillows and blankets and inside it held a red tinted lantern and stacks fantasy books. On the wooden desk that sat across her bed, she placed a TV and cheap DVD player that faced her, and currently ran a muted movie as his eye's made their way back to hers.

"How long have you been here?" He asked through gritted teeth, finding it hard to not slur.

She gave a toothy smirk and sat up on her knees, "Long enough to hear you stumble in, and now you're close enough for me to understand why."

His glare silenced her attitude and she dropped her gaze to her open notebook and pen. Breaking the tense awkwardness only slightly, he walked fully into the room and closed the door behind him. He stepped across her room before heavily dropping into the recliner next to the headboard of her bed.

She watched his eyes narrow on the TV screen and her smiled to herself.

"What did you drink?" She asked and followed his attention on the silent running movie.

"Is it that apparent?" His voice came quietly after a moment.

"If your bloodshot eyes and stumbling didn't give it away, it would have to be the smell." She laughed quietly and Severus gave an uncomfortable grin.

For whatever reason, in the right company, Severus Snape was a sort of loose and happy drunk. He never fully pulled back his walls or got intoxicated to unruly behavior since he was young, but the spoils of rich life made drinking a relaxing and social event. As the warmth of the home set in, Severus found his shoulders and neck relaxing with good company, and his posture sank deeper into the chair as the protection of his home pulled him from his personal walls.

Haven smiled and unmuted the television.

 **Haven:**

"Are you mad?" She asked after a while and Severus snapped his drunk attention from the movie to her while keeping his eyes on the screen.

"Why do you think I'm mad?" He asked, with a drunk and exhausted slur.

She had been watching him for awhile now, she watched the way the light reflected off his hair and how his glossy eyes focused on the unfamiliar muggle movie. She watched as he had cracked every knuckle and she watched him crack each knee before asking her question.

"You look mad."

"I always look mad." his reply was blank and emotionless.

"That doesn't mean you always are."

She watched him stay silent and noticed his Adam's apple move as he swallowed uncomfortably, his eyes remaining on the screen.

After a moment of nothing else said, she quietly put her eye's back on the screen as well and minutes would pass before either would speak again.

"I'm not mad." His voice came quietly, random enough where she almost missed it.

"Just drunk?" Havens teased, her smile heavily reflecting in her tone.

His eyes glared at her now and he gave a snarl in attempt to silence, "Yes... Just drunk."

"How drunk?" She quipped and felt her lip twitch upward.

"Haven..."

"Severus."

" _Haven_..." Her name was a threat that dripped off his fangs but Haven was not afraid of things that bit, nor was she afraid to dance with devils, and she looked at him with fire in her eyes that flickered at a fevered pace.

"See, now you seem mad." She joisted, raising an eyebrow as her eyes held on the television and head tilted.

"I'm getting there."

"Why?"

"Because." His voice was dangerous and his apparent losing temper showed in his narrowing eyes.

She fell into a quiet smile. She knew what she was doing, and she knew how it annoyed him. But, she also had come to learn that if he really wanted her to stop, when his limit was maxed, he'd make sure she knew.

Therefore, using that logic, she continued her poking.

"Because, why?"

"Haven, I swear to God..." The muggle phrase left his lips without so much as a notice.

"That doesn't sound like a nice thing to do."

"For the love of Merlin, Haven!"

She laughed and fell back against the pillows which placed her at his side.

"You're no fun, Sev." She sighed.

"I was never supposed to be."

"Doesn't mean you can't be."

"Full circle."

She gave a grin and pulled her knees up and set herself against the headboard and allowed herself to fall into the movie which after awhile, she found herself drifting to sleep under the low murmur of the movie and the deep, drunken breathing of Severus as she swept her away into personal silence.

* * *

 **Haven:**

"My sweet Jessica, I'm glad you have returned."

The gentle voice of Tom Riddle spun the girl around. They stood in the same barren wasteland next to the same dead tree trunk and Tom was there to pull her to him by her shoulders. He wrapped his arms tightly around her in a deep embrace which she quickly returned.

In time she had seen, that only when she was in the same vicinity of Severus that she should have these dreams. Dreams which always took place in the same desert with the same eerie silence that sat against their voices.

"I want you do something special for me. Can you do that?"

She nodded with her head against his chest and he gently moved her a step backwards.

"Do you remember what we have been practicing?"

Tom referred to a dream game they had been playing, one where she would travel to a certain person through a picture he would hand her and she would take them into that dream. Haven gave a nod and Tom handed her a picture which Haven took and looked down into. It was in color like they all had been and it showed a sunny scene of a slightly younger boy with messy red hair and many freckles. He was smiling warmly and had a large letter "R" on his maroon knitted sweater. She looked up from the picture and Tom was there to kiss her forehead and take her hand. Nodding, she shut her eyes and let herself go, feeling a release from her dreaming body as she and Tom sucked into the picture, leaving the dream world warp around them.

The surroundings of the dream within her dream, settled on a large open piece of land with a stacked old house that sat alone surrounded by bogs and high grass. She watched a family of fire headed children ran around the yard laughing. She watched as two older twin boys chased and casting spells after the boy in the picture. A younger girl with long red hair sat on a long lawn chair laughing. Next to her, sat a girl who matched the age of boy in the picture. Her bushy brown hair bouncing as she shook her head and continued writing on a parchment on her lap.

Tom's snake-like arms wrapped around her from behind and his nose grazed against the bare side of her head as his lips traced her ear. Haven leaned back against him and she felt his arms tighten around her in a python like hold.

"Now, change the air, love." His whisper breathed heavily on the side of her neck, sending sparks down her spine and catching her breath as Tom's thumb rubbed gently over her hip. She closed her eyes and envisioned the now sunny sky being covered by clouds with tremendous wind and rain. To no surprise, her mental picture slowly became reality as the feeling of a brisk wind sent a shiver through her, forcing her closer against the warmth that hugged her. She opened her eyes to a shadowed world where the twins stopped running and looked confused at the sky. Shrugging and starting inside, the red and brown haired girls pulled the blankets together and collected their books and feather pens to quickly follow after the twins.

"My turn, my love." Tom hissed into her ear, and Haven watched Tom's hand extend by them. With a snap, she noticed a small fire break out within the brush and becoming nervous, her heart beginning to speed up, Haven held securely to Tom as the boy left the clearing and his siblings to go investigate.

"Don't hurt him, Tom.." She mumbled to him.

"Always to teach, never to punish." He whispered as he kissed the top of her ear, a motion that sent another shiver through her.

She watched quietly as the boy approached close to the fire and Haven dug her nails into her protectors arm as in a flash, a murder of crows launched from the brush beside the boy and frightened him off balance. The red hair boy gave out a cry that rivaled the thunder and Haven watched him tip over and fall into the consuming fire.

What started as a scream from her throat came forth into reality as her body jumping upright in the bed, her lungs gasping for air. The feeling of another's energy pushed her to panic and she grabbed her knife, flipped it open and turned to slash behind her.

She quickly met eyes with Snape. He was watching her out of the side of his eyes as he leaned away from her violent motion, his wand already pointing at her. For a moment they they both just held their breath as they came out of sleep to the view of one another. Silently they sat facing off in a silent battle as they both pulled themselves from unconsciousness into a world of consequences. Haven lowered first and Severus dropped his wand quickly after and leaned forward in the armchair. Rubbing his face with his hands and taking a few deep breaths, Haven noticed he was clearly still drunk and hungover at the same time, neither made better by his violent wake up. He gave a final sigh and stood up, cracking his knees, elbows and neck before heading to the door.

"Where are you going?" Haven asked half awake, rubbing her eyes ready to turn over into the sleep.

He turned only party to her before stepping out of the room, "I'm going to go vomit, and then I'm going back to bed... In my room."

She gave a weak smile as she leaned back against the pillows.

"Good Night, Severus." She yawned into the darkness, as the door began to shut.

She felt his pause and the slight tension that rose in his throat but alas, she was to tired to care. But still she could swear she heard, cast under his breath and barely audible that he had grumbled, "Good night, Haven," before shutting the door fully and locking it behind him.


	8. Tales of Tadem Lives

****Chapter 8: Tales of Tadem Lives****

* * *

 **Tales of Tandem Lives**

 **Haven:**

It was mid-afternoon when Haven woke to the heavy pattering of rain on the windows of the bedroom. After taking in the sound of nature and holding it's dangerous beauty within her soul, she x-hales tension and climbs from the warmness of the bed. Slipping her bare feet into her old untied army boots, she rubs her face before shuffling towards the window. Propping herself against the sill by her palms, she looks out over Severus's backyard, watching the rain as it cleansed the town. In her travels, her eye's landed on the old wooden Apothecary shed and the view after cleared to that of her own reflection. In thought, she watches her fingers in the window as she moves them along the bright white scar that started from her forehead and ran the opposite side of her face. His potions had healed her quickly, but the time and major infection beforehand, forced a memory of destructive magic, lies and panic.

She had been walking alone that night, down a building lined street when she heard the sound of shoes slip behind her and the pick up of pace after her. She felt the approaching energy as a malicious and evil cloud and she connected to her surrounds to the T. She made a note of everything, every lit window, every street, vehicle and obstacle that could and would slow her down or expose her, she saw.

She slowed her heart with quick meditation into a forced calm and at the last moment she took off to side. Whatever trailed her followed quickly, initiating chase at once. She dipped into the alleys and ran her rout as she had many times before. She rounded corners and slid through little known holes and scaled tall obstructions in ways only practice could accomplish. As she approached a tall chain linked fence she smiled. These became easy for her to scale now in her older years and she climbed and landed on the other side with no problem. Turning around to watch her attacker, she frowned as a familiar arm gesture was made and in a moment, a flash,a blast, shot from the weapon and burned an adult person sized hole through the fence.

Magic, Haven realized with a weight that sunk her heart.

Haven panicked and took off into a run, loosing herself in the maze of back streets; she vaulted barriers and jumped dumpsters before settling on one particular that sat under a fire escape of a six story business building. With a quick leap, she pushed off the dumpster and wrapped her fingers around the third bar and skillfully used the momentum to pull herself up before moving quickly up the ladder.

Once at the roof, she pulled herself over the raised side edge and landed in a crouching position while taking her knife from her back pocket and exposing the blade to the sky. She felt her soul charging as the blade absorbed the energy from the full moon and she felt her bones sparking over her skin and through her veins. She stood quietly, waiting for a hand or head of her chaser to appear into view so that their blood might feed her arms vicious extension. A swooping noise from behind her and a sudden sound of feet hitting gravel spun her around instead.

To her surprise, it was a women who stepped from the shadowed fog. Her hair was tall, messy and black and she was dressed in a flowing black dress with edges that looked like fading smoke as it waved in low blowing wind. Her face was pale and eccentric as was her hair and stride. Haven stepped to the side forcing the two to circle motion.

"I knew, I knew who you were." She cackled.

"Clearly the wrong person."

Haven did not hold fear her heart, instead she felt an angry burning eruption inside her that perked each sense. The women intentions were obvious, and this was no time to think.

The women smiled, opening her circle, "I don't think so, love. "

She did not allow the women to push her back, she would die before let some dumb, crack head take control of the fight. The women seemed slightly impressed with her bravery and slowed her steps.

"Quite a brave little Gryffindor, you are." she narrowed her eyes and stood tall, crossing her arms loosely.

"Quite stupid some people can be, to annoy those that wish not to be annoyed."

Havens retort shown obviously obliviousness to her knowledge of Hogwarts and forced a laugh from the witch, who cackled like lightning as the rain fell like solid hail.

"And you've got a mouth. We'll be best girlfriends you and I. I,-" Her eye's narrowed into viper like slits and her voice turned to a hiss, "- I can already feel it."

The two stood feet away from each other now and the witch made her final assault. Haven felt the oncoming attack and had already lurched forward into a run as the wand was thrust from under crossed arms. Before the spell was cast, Haven caught the arm and twisted at the elbow and wrist, cracking both in one movement and used the broken arm to shove the women to the ground. As Haven controlled the women's movements, she dragged her knife through the women's arm and thigh before a spell from her attacker, flew the two women apart. Right before Haven was forced to fully let go, she saw the flash of the women's right hand fly past her peripherals and felt nothing until her back slammed against the gravel ground.

Haven let herself stumble a few steps away from the fight, crying out as she felt her skin and flesh burn excruciatingly more and more. Forcing herself to focus, Haven turned around to face where the women now knelt on all fours. It seemed she was having a harder time then Haven for her attempts to stand up fully, resulted in heavy stumbling and swears.

"Bellitrix Lestrange! Remember my name you bloody bitch! Bellitrix. Lestrange!" The women screamed holding her rotting arm and limp leg before disappearing completely into a cloud of smoke.

Haven's view waved as the city around her dropped to silence and the sky spun above her. She took a few steps before collapsing against a brick wall her eyes closing as she felt her cheek make contact to the cold concrete ground.

From her place in front of the window, Haven blinked away the memory and pushed off the sill. She turned to face the bedroom door in hopes Severus had unlocked it. To her surprise,when the handle was spun, the door pulled open allowing her into the silent hallway. She left the room with her door cracked open and traveled down the the hallway and stairs. She wearing baggy sweat pants and an over sized shirt and traveled the house feeling for any sign of Severus. When she reached the bottom stair, a coldness forced her back two more. No fire had been started, no candles were lit and the house sat dead and cold against the poring rain. She looked around the empty space before turning around and moving back up the stairs.

Just as quietly as before, she would scratch her head and yawn as she shuffled down the hall to the man's bedroom. Haven gave the door a stiff knock and waited listening for anything inside. She waited and with no sound or warning, the door cracked open and the tired looking Severus stepped forward and occupied the blackened space by leaning on the threshold and cocking an insulting eyebrow at her. He wore a black wife beater with an open long sleeve, button up over it that covered his shoulders and arms. His eye's were still slightly bloodshot and his posture showed an out of character weakness as his shoulder leaned heavy on the threshold.

"The afternoon has been good to you, I see." Haven stated quietly, looking over the man's disheveled appearance.

"What do you want?" His bite was back, along with his anger, he straightened up to his shadow casting height, cracking knuckles with his thumb.

"You've been in your room all day?" she asked trying to see around him to no avail.

"Yes."

Haven assessed the situation before asking her next question, "Are you alright?"

He gave an irritated sigh and stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him, his back against the wood in a smooth motion that hid his hangover well.

"I don't think I've ever dealt with a hangover for more then two minutes in my entire life." His sigh was that of emotionless defeat.

"What?" Haven laughed.

"True." A slight perk to his to his otherwise stoned, tired voice. "there are potions one can create and take before or after drinking that will rid hangover's and undesired affects." Snape's voice was listless and tired.

"What happened this time?"

"I gave my last one to, Malfoy."

"Rough." Haven nodded, "Well anyway, I was wondering.. It's still raining..."

"And, you want to stay until it stops?" He crossed his arms and looked at her, regaining his vulture like exterior.

She hated the effect he had on her, the feeling of being small and weak and she knew he could feel it even now. He was the only one in her life who still made her feel like a child. It was a specific anger that she forced herself to swallow.

"Yes." She said boldly and he gave a snide smirk.

"Then I think it's fair, you do something for me."

Haven paled. Here it was. After all these years he was finally using the card on her and with no fight in her, she hooked her thumb to her pants waist before his expression turned to disgust..

"Not that.." He found himself distracted, "I never want that as a price, never offer it again to me... I want you to accompany me, and _respectfully_ meet some people who want to meet you."

"People who? Where?" She asked dropping her hand.

"People I know and places I've been. You wouldn't remember their names anyway."

Haven looked at the framed picture on the wall next to him, a wooded lining in a grey field, before glancing back, "Magic people?"

"Yes, Haven... Magic people.." He tolerated her.

"Like me?"

" _Similar,_ to you."

Haven waited a moment and ran the agreement through her head, "Throw in the door being unlocked more often, and we got a deal."

"Don't push it.." He growled.

"Than why was the door unlocked today?"

"Simplicity. I didn't want to bother with you or anything outside of my room today. But, here I am." He went to crack his knuckles again but with no avail. "I can assure you it wasn't out of trust, just my lack of desire to let you into a house you're already in. "

He was testy and harsh, but again so was everyone in his position. She let the comment slip by and gave him a head nod and a grin.

" Deal. Thank you, Severus."

"You're pushing it again."

Her eyes narrowed on his, before twisting around and walking away. With a flick of his wand the downstairs lit up and hot fire roared in the living room. He turned back into his room and closed the door behind him.

* * *

 ****Flash back****

 **Severus**

 _Albus leaned over the table and looked straight at his young potions master, "Severus Snape-" He started sternly but fatherly, watching the continuous threats crossing across the mans eyes. "You came to me years ago promising me-"_

 _"Fine." His voice was short and his voice was lined with controlled anger._

 _"Thank you." Albus said before dismissing the man from the meeting early._

...

Severus ran the meeting through his mind again as he stood alone on the train platform of Spinners End. Albus has requested for Haven's presence and he was left with no other option than to say yes. The war had become risky since the Dark Lord had made his first appearance and the Order was demanding Severus to prove his claim of switching sides. He was stuck in the middle, a place where he hated to be the most.

His hearing perked to a small set of foot steps of a non-magical entity, walking up to the station which confused him slightly. Spinners End was a mostly muggle town, with low headed witches and wizards placed sparsely around. Much like Hogwarts camouflage, the platform looked like a dead train rail station at the end of an abandoned dirt path. Whatever muggle just showed up was going to forcibly stall the train. His lip twitched irritably and turned around to tell the person off when he met eyes with a darkly grinning Haven, who had stopped as he turned.

He cocked his eyebrow and silently turned back to the tracks as the rumbling of a train approached. He said nothing nor looked at her again and they got on the train through separate doorways and sat far apart. They did not address each other, but when the train pulled into a muggle London station, Severus rose and got off, a movement quickly followed by Haven. She followed him through the crowds, using her street skills to hang back allowing people between them, while still keeping eyes on him.

Well, him and a few pockets, she grinned to herself as her hand pulled out of a women purse, taking her wallet and slipping it into her inner jacket pocket.

He turned sharply down an empty ally and Haven was quick to follow him until he stopped and turned around. With no one between them they stood in silence looking at each other for a moment before Haven moved closer and stretched out her open hand towards him. He eyes went to her hand then moved up, narrowing against her eye's. He stepped closer and grasped her wrist tightly instead, and apparated them both from the spot.

Their travel ended when whey landed on a sidewalk facing a row of connected houses. He let her go immediately and pulled out his wand before casting a spell into the air. Her eye's widened as the houses began to separate and a new column emerged without notice to anyone around.

"You've gotten quite advanced in hiding your magic to senses," He noted solemnly, his first words quiet as they watched the house appear from between two homes.

"Taught by the best," she complimented simply, giving a grin.

Severus waited a moment, watching the gate fly up in front of the house before looking down at Haven.

"You look like a muggle.." He grumbled, looking up the street as a noise echoed from the distance.

She shifted her posture slightly offended, "Whats wrong with that?"

"You should dress with the society you relate to the most. Avoid questions and attention."

"I'm not in your society." Her voice was blunt and stone, making him look at her curiously as she continued to stare ahead of her with her features holding blank and unemotional.

"How do you figure?" He asked.

"I live on London streets. I steal these people's money and sleep in their in their alleys, I search their dumpsters and I break into their homes and steal their stuff. Besides knowing magic, besides knowing you, I leave no shadow in your society besides that within your flat."

"Fair enough."

Severus began across the empty street and Haven followed obediently, rising the hood and zippering her sweater. He walked up the steps and opened the door with no knock and briskly walked inside and Haven paused momentarily as he faded into the dark hallway. Pushing herself through the threshold, she picked her speed and followed him until she was behind him again. He was standing with his toes at the line of the light protruding from the active room on the other side of the wall. He seemed uncomfortable, as if he was prepping himself to step into view, a hesitation she didn't remember ever seeing before. He shook his head slightly, and turned to face her.

"Stay here."

His body straightened up fully and his features set to a dark and angry appearance and he turned heel and stepped into view and leaned on the threshold.

 **Haven:**

"Severus!" A familiar women's voice rang and he gave a silent nod and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Did you-" The witches voice was silenced as Severus stepped into the room bringing the conversation to be lost in whispers.

Haven waited irritably as the conversation went on without her and eventually she looked around the musty, gross and dusty entry way.

"Well, hello there." A mans light voice said quietly behind her, twisting Haven around. He was fatherly looking man, with red hair and a jolly smile but she would only wall to the man who stood against the darkness of the hall behind him. Haven stayed silent and just glared angrily for an awkward moment.

"Did you come here with, Severus?" The man tired.

She thought nothing and said nothing.

"It's okay, I know him. My name is Arthur Weasley." He extended his hand, placing his fatherly smile wider.

Her heavy silence and internal anger dropped the smile slowly from the mans a face as well as the hand that no longer held in the space between them and he looked up as a sweeping sound was heard from behind. Haven knew it was Snape and used the knowledge to keep her attention on the unfamiliar man until a sharp jab in her side made her flinch.

"Hello Arthur," Severus's voice was dark and haunting, "I see you don't need introductions."

"Actually Severus, we haven't been introduced."

Snape looked disapprovingly down at Haven, who still stood with her back to him and refused to meet his glare,

"Haven, Arthur. Arthur, this is, Haven."

"Nice to finally meet you Haven, Severus has told me so much about you."

What would be seen as a normal polite thing to say, sent shivers down her spine and a growl of the the mans name from within Severus's throat. The man saw his wrong and silenced himself before walking past them into the open living room.

"Come here," Severus instructed and Haven stepped into sight, placing herself next to the vulture and looked out into the room of mismatched faces that she placed with shadowed voices. There were multiple people, all who stared at her silently and Severus was quick to pick up her ongoing silence.

"Haven, this is Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Molly Weasley, Tonks, Mad Eye Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebolt. You already know Minerva, Albus and Arthur." Severus gestured to each individual who gave their own independent hello's, before continuing,

"Everyone, this is Haven."

* * *

 **yay for past chapter explanations! Hope you enjoyed. please remember I love R &R's**


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